Biden wishes recall advocates 'good luck'

MILWAUKEE, March 30 (UPI) -- Vice President Joe Biden gave a shout-out to Democrats seeking to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Republican state lawmakers.

"I wish you luck on your recall efforts," Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser in Milwaukee Thursday without mentioning Walker by name.

The stop was part of a swing through Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois the vice president made to boost Democratic campaign efforts. Biden knocked Republicans for going after national entitlement programs, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

"These Republicans, they ain't hidin' the ball man!" he said. "Have you ever seen a campaign, no matter how old you are, where the Republicans haven't tried to say, 'We support Medicare, we support Social Security, we are compassionate conservatives, we think there's a need for healthcare, we want to improve public education

"They're not saying those things! … They're saying exactly what they think! God bless them!" he said, to laughter and applause."

Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus issued a statement saying Biden and President Obama have put campaigning ahead of governing.

"Instead of dropping into Milwaukee to use Wisconsin as [an] ATM for the Obama re-election fund, Vice President Biden should explain to Wisconsinites why campaigning always seems to be more important than relief for Wisconsin families," Priebus said.

In Chicago, Biden attended a pair of private fundraising receptions where tickets cost $2,500 to $10,000, the Chicago Tribune reported. Biden said the president's re-election campaign needs to stoke its war chest because Republican SuperPacs are piling up hundreds of millions of dollars to "carpet bomb" Obama with attack ads.

Biden told about five dozen donors at one fundraiser he doesn't think he and the president will be "beaten by those candidates."

"I think we'll be beaten -- if we are -- by something happening in the Eurozone or something happening in the [Persian] Gulf, which could be difficult for us, or this barrage of SuperPAC money. But even with that I feel good," Biden said.

Responding Friday to Biden's comments, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, "I have heard many other senior administration officials and other campaign officials note that it is not uncommon for significant outside events to influence elections, they certainly have in the past."

"My guess is," Earnest said, "what the vice president was referring to is any series of outside events that could have an impact to some degree or another on the election," such as the ongoing financial crisis in Europe or the turmoil in the Middle East.

Biden also praised Obama's decisiveness in ordering U.S. forces on the mission that took out Osama bin Laden when nearly all of his security team, including himself, "equivocated."

"I said, 'Mr. President, you still have three days," Biden said. "He turned to Tom Donilon -- who's a hell of a national security adviser -- and said, 'Go!' He knew, if it was wrong, he was an ex-president. He knew he was a one-term president ... That was a gutsy move ...

"He said, 'This is the best shot we've ever had and we cannot run the risk of not taking it even if it means my career is over.'"