Biden: ‘We can’t win without Florida’

Vice President Biden said Friday that President Obama cannot be reelected without again winning Florida, a pivotal swing state that carries 29 electoral votes.

The comments, in a speech at the Florida Democratic Party convention, are an acknowledgement that the 2012 race will likely be far tighter than Obama’s 2008 victory, when Obama tallied 365 electoral votes and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) only 173.

“You all are going to be seeing an awful lot of me, because the states I am going to be concentrating on are Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire and Iowa, and I am going to be here a lot, so I am looking forward to working with you all,” Biden said.

{mosads}“We plan on winning Florida. We can’t win without Florida,” Biden added.

He also took aim at the GOP’s economic record, noting the deficits created under the Bush administration and the housing market collapse.

“I find it absolutely bizarre, Republicans moralizing about deficits. That’s a little like an arsonist moralizing about fire safety. These guys have zero credibility,” Biden said.

“Their vision of economic policy and their plan for prosperity lay in creative financial instruments, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, subprime mortgages,” Biden said.

“They gave us a bubble, and they called it an economy,” he said.

He touted the Obama administration’s economic initiatives – Biden cited 19 straight months of private-sector job growth – and steps to stabilize Wall Street and tighten financial sector rules, aid to the auto industry and other programs.

Biden also promoted the healthcare law that GOP White House candidates are pledging to repeal.

“Instead of long-term debt increasing as predicted by $100 billion over the next 10 years because of healthcare costs and $1 trillion in the second decade, we passed healthcare reform and literally bent the cost curve and in the process provided 30 million Americans who didn’t have access to healthcare [with] healthcare,” Biden said.