United Liberty

There is no denying that Joe Biden, our gaffetastic vice president, had a rough week. The Washington Post gave him the “Worst Week in Washington” award thanks to his off-remark during a campaign stop in Virginia that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would allow Wall Street to put the predominantly African-American crowd “back in chains.”

Despite all the talk of a “new tone” that we’ve endured, it certainly does seem that the Obama campaign is lobbing most of the cheap shots during this campaign. Since Obama doesn’t really have much of an economic record on which to run, the tactics being employed are to be expected. But if Vice President Biden is supposed to score points for Obama, polls show that the campaign may want to think again before sending him back out on the stump:

Almost every recent poll has shown Biden’s numbers at a low point, with more voters viewing him unfavorably than viewing him in a positive light — though in most cases, it’s only by a few points.

Biden’s favorable rating, which was well into the 50s when he and Obama won the 2008 election and took office in 2009, has fallen to around 40 percent in most polls. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll recently pegged his favorable rating at 35 percent (37 percent negative), while a Fox News poll showed the split at 41 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable.

Also, swing state polls conducted recently by Purple Strategies showed Biden has an even more negative image in the four states tested — Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. In the four combined, his favorable rating was 41 percent and his unfavorable rating was 48 percent.

Some think that Biden ought to be replaced with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It’s certainly tempting, but as Ron Davis explained last week, it’s not going to happen for a few different reasons. Clinton is also rumored to be interested in running for president in four years.

And it’s not like Republicans want Biden to go anywhere. While a running mate may not be viewed as a big part of a presidential ticket, the Vice President could do more harm to Obama than good in debate against Paul Ryan, which is why American Crossroads launched this snarky ad last week “endorsing” Biden: