Biden: Obama looked 'presidential,' did 'well' against Romney

Vice President Biden on Thursday defended President Obama's debate performance, praising Obama for doing "well" and looking "presidential."

"I think the president did well. He was presidential," Biden said just before he gave a campaign speech in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "You just don’t ever know what game, what positions Gov. [Mitt] Romney’s going to come with."

The vice president's defense comes as pundits on both sides of the aisle are panning Obama's performance in Wednesday night's first presidential debate, in Denver, saying the president looked subdued and tired.

Biden also argued the debate revealed GOP nominee Mitt Romney doesn't have a clear position on taxes. Biden's criticism was in reference to a part of the debate in which Romney strongly denied that his tax plan called for a $5 trillion tax cut that would mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans. Biden suggested Thursday that Romney was switching positions by denying support for the tax cut.

"Last night we found out he doesn’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. I guess he outsourced that to China or something, I don’t know, that’s offshored," Biden said. "But it’s hard to figure out what Gov. Romney’s position is on a number of issues."

"But I think as time goes on, meaning days, it’s going to become pretty clear that Gov. Romney has either changed a number of his positions or didn’t remember some of his positions. I think at the end of the day we have two more debates coming up, or the president does, and I feel very good about it."

Both Obama and Biden devoted some of their stump speeches Thursday to portraying Romney as a flip-flopper. Earlier in the day Obama said that the Romney he debated Wednesday night was completely different than the one on the campaign trail.

"When I got onto the stage I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney," Obama said. "But it couldn’t have been Mitt Romney, because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country all year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy. The fellow onstage last night said he didn’t know anything about that.”

Similarly, Biden suggested that Romney has continued to change positions for short-term political gain.

"Unlike some others, [Obama] never says one thing one day and another thing the next day, and he never changes position because it may be politically convenient," Biden said during his speech in Iowa.

---