Via First Read, Joe Biden spoke in New Hampshire, contrasting McCain's approach vs. Obama's approach today (Obama's giving a major economic policy speech in Ohio):

"It looks like John McCain's entire speech is gonna be attack, attack, attack, attack," Biden said. "It couldn't be clearer to me what's going on here. John McCain wants to attack Barack Obama and Barack Obama wants to [tackle] the problems that face America today."

Speaking in the Granite State, Biden acknowledged McCain's favored status here. And, he argued, McCain should have had a built-in advantage in times of crisis because he is a "war hero." But he's squandered that by his behavior, Biden said.

"John's hands have been anything but certain in the last year," he said. "The McCain administration would be uncertain, clinging to the past, lurching from one bad idea to another. ... In a New England sense, it's about a steady hand. It really is about a steady hand and good ideas. Because this is not beyond our capacity. This is not beyond our capacity to turn this country around. And ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama has steady hands."

But maybe the story here is how the McCain campaign responded:

Republicans reacted by, for the first time, invoking the scandal that ended Biden's 1988 presidential campaign, saying that the Democrats' plan "mirrors the proposals that President Hoover implemented at the onset of the Great Depression."

"It's plagiarism of the very worst economic policies in American history," McCain spokesperson Ben Porritt said in a statement.

Not very subtle.