Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, ventured into a conservative area of conservative Colorado Springs Wednesday to declare that he and Sen. Barack Obama had two overriding goals: "one, restore the middle class, and two, reclaim the respect America deserves in the world."

Much of Biden's 35-minute speech, delivered to an overflow crowd in the gymnasium at Sierra High School - midway between Peterson Air Force Base and Fort Carson - was devoted to attacking the Republican ticket of Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

The audience numbered about 1,500, less than a quarter of the turnout for Palin when she held a rally in the Springs on Monday.

But the Democrats were in high spirits, laughing when Biden brought up the "maverick" label McCain and Palin have pinned on themselves, and cheering Biden's punch line tying McCain to President Bush: "You can't call yourself a maverick when all you've been for the last eight years is a sidekick."

Of McCain's repeated declarations that he is not George Bush, Biden quoted Shakespeare: "He doth protest too much."
"If it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, if it looks like a duck, it's a duck," he said. "And John McCain's walking, talking and quacking like George Bush."

With polls indicating Obama is leading in Colorado and nationally, Biden brimmed with confidence. "We have the best ground operation I think this state or any state has ever seen," he said, quite a boast in a state with a well-oiled, deeply entrenched Republican grass-roots organization.

But he warned against complacency and encouraged everyone in the audience to take advantage of early voting. "Endorsements and polls do not determine the outcome of elections," he said, reminding the crowd that "in 2000 and 2004, we thought we would win."

Acknowledging the country's economic turmoil, Biden spoke of families struggling with mortgages, concerned about their health insurance and their jobs, while watching the stock market ravage their retirement accounts and college education savings.

"The American dream has become a distant dream," he said.

Biden called on Congress to reconvene after the election to pass a new economic stimulus plan and impose a three-month moratorium on housing foreclosures, noting that Colorado has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

Accusing McCain of being a willing partner with the Bush administration in "eight years of failed economic policies," Biden assailed the Republicans' economic plan, which he said features $300 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy, and said the Democratic tax plan, providing "substantial tax relief for the middle class," was the right way to go.

"The wealthy do just fine when the middle class grows," he said. "The poor do better when the middle class grows."

Perhaps the biggest cheer came when Biden repeated his pledge "to end this war in Iraq."

With stops on Tuesday in Greeley and Commerce City, and another Wednesday afternoon in Pueblo, it was the Delaware

Democrat's first visit to Colorado since he accepted the vice presidential nomination at his party's national convention in Denver in August.

Colorado is a key battleground, and by Sunday all four members of the two major-party tickets will have made appearances in the state within a week - Palin on Monday and Biden on Tuesday and Wednesday, with McCain arriving on Friday and Obama on Sunday.

One of the volunteers in the audience was Rosa Caballero, who paid her way to come to Colorado Springs from El Paso, Texas, to work for the Obama-Biden campaign for two weeks to "finish off the campaign," she said.

"I'm doing it for my grandkids, so my grandkids can have a future," she said. "Texas is Republican. I knew Colorado was going to make a difference. I'm going to stay here and try to have Colorado blue."

Gazette reporter Andrea Brown contributed to this article

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