Following up on Josh's post from earlier, I'm getting around to watching Joe Biden's stump speech in Michigan today and it's actually really worth watching the whole thing. Not only does Biden flip the script a little and begin to compare 2008 McCain to 2000 Bush -- and in the process deliver the priceless line "Folks, we've seen this movie before and we know: the sequel is always worse than the original." But he also begins to connect the McCain is out of touch with the economy dots by merging the McCain is out of touch frame with the McCain is Bush's third term frame. Very effective I think.

This excerpt pretty much nails it (h/t TPM):

Take a hard look at the positions John has taken for the past 26 years, on the economy, on health care, on foreign policy, and you'll see why I say that John McCain is just four more years of George Bush. On the issues that you talk about around the kitchen table, Mary's college tuition, the cost of the MRI for mom, heating our home this winter -- John McCain is profoundly out of touch.

Senator McCain has confessed, quote, "It's easy for me to go to Washington and frankly, be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have." And he's right, if all you do is walk the halls of power, all you hear are the wants of the powerful.

I believe that's why Senator McCain could say with a straight face, as recently as this morning, and I quote "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." That, "We've made great progress economically" during the Bush years. But friends, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn't run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well, unless I ran into John McCain.

John McCain just doesn't seem to understand what middle class people are going through today. I don't doubt that he cares. He just doesn't think that we have any responsibility to help people who are hurting.

Interesting. Joe Biden on the stump in Michigan today isn't comparing the 2000 McCain to 2008 McCain; he's comparing 2000 Bush to 2008 McCain.

Been wondering where Joe has been? Look no further.

Watch it: