- The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Injecting racial politics into an election that already turned ugly, Vice President Joseph R. Biden told a largely black audience Tuesday in Virginia that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would put voters “back in chains” with a plan to loosen regulations on Wall Street.

Romney wants to, he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign rally in Danville, Va.

The vice president then lowered his voice and said, “They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”

Some in the audience laughed, but Republicans said the Obama campaign lowered itself to new depths of gutter politics.

“In case anyone was wondering just how low President Obama could go in his campaign for re-election, we now know he’s willing to say that Governor Romney wants to put people back in chains,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement. “Whether it’s accusing Mitt Romney of being a felon, having been responsible for a woman’s tragic death or now wanting to put people in chains, there’s no question that because of the president’s failed record he’s been reduced to a desperate campaign based on division and demonization.”

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh called Mr. Biden “a walking buffoon.”

Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary for George W. Bush, said Mr. Biden’s remark was “objectionable.”

“The press pounded [Sarah] Palin when she talked about ‘blood libel,’” Mr. Fleischer said via Twitter. “What will they do about Biden’s ‘chains’ remark?”

The Romney campaign demanded to know what Mr. Obama, the nation’s first black president, thought about his running mate’s racially charged comment. Within hours, an Obama campaign official said the president was fine with it.

The Democrats’ camp said Republicans such as House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — Mr. Romney’s running mate — had used similar rhetoric.