Joe Biden Rips McCain and Palin in Greensboro, North Carolina

Greensboro, North Carolina -- Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, made two stops in North Carolina on Tuesday. The first stop was at East Carolina University in Greenville and the second in the state's third most populous city of Greensboro.

The crowd greeting Joe Biden in Greensboro, while enthusiastic, was relatively small compared with huge turnouts during rallies for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Sarah Palin in the state. Estimates say several hundred people, equally divided among white and blacks, young and old, male and female, attended the Greensboro rally.

Size notwithstanding, those in attendance warmly welcomed Biden and reacted vocally to comments made as he promoted the Democratic agenda and praised Obama.

As one raised in the South, it was interesting to me to hear the Pennsylvania-born senator from Delaware greet the crowd with "it's good to be with y'all." While this was a well-intended, albeit obvious, attempt to blend in with colloquial Greensboro/Southern speech, it came across as very pretentious when mixed with Biden's obvious Pennsylvania-Delaware accent and it appeared that those in the crowd also felt it as they were slow to react to Biden's early comments.

That reaction was short-lived, however, and soon into Biden's speech, the crowd was on board, cheering Biden's promise that under an Obama-Biden administration, people of Greensboro would not have to be concerned about whether they were better off four years ago, but could look forward to being better off four years from now.

Perhaps the largest crowd reaction came when Biden scoffed at John McCain's claim that he is not President Bush. Biden joked, "I know that Halloween is coming, but McCain dressed as an agent change just doesn't fit" to which the crowd waved blue and white Obama-Biden signs and chanted, "Change we need, change we need!"

Early in his speech, Biden said the Democratic ticket was not campaigning against George Bush, but against the Bush policies he said John McCain will duplicate. Biden listed these failed policies: shipping jobs overseas, taxing health care benefits and granting tax breaks to big oil.

"You can't call yourself a maverick when all you've really been is a sidekick," Biden almost yelled to the roar of the audience.

Biden the listed the goals of the Obama-Biden administration as rescuing the middle class, ending the war in Iraq, and reclaiming America's position of leadership and respect in the world.

Biden said that rebuilding the middle class would start with middle class tax cuts and cuts in taxes for small businesses and would include breaking our dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs here at home.

"An Obama administration would encourage young people to volunteer in service to their country and not just in the military, but in various forms of community and national service. To those who serve, a college education would be provided," Biden said.

In the Greensboro area, which has been hard hit by the loss of most of the textile industry and thousands of textile jobs, people are particularly sensitive to the exporting of jobs to Asia. Biden seized on this, announcing that no one in current administration has stood up to China and its unfair trade practices, which have made it impossible for U.S. industry to compete.

"Fair trade is not fair, when it only favors one nation," he said.

In a particularly poignant moment, Biden made the point that there is nothing more devastating than having to take that long walk upstairs to tell your wife of kids that you have lost your job and that you may have rethink that college education for your kids or that home purchase. Biden said that 37,000 such walks were taken in North Carolina during the past year.

Under a new administration, the United States will stand up to China and to companies that ship jobs overseas, Biden said.

"We will also put a freeze on mortgage foreclosures not when we get elected, but when we return to Washington," he promised.

Biden closed out his 20-minute remarks by ensuring people that Obama is ready to meet any challenge and that he (Obama) had a "spine of steel."

He encouraged the people of North Carolina to reject the negativism and stand up for what's right, and what's right is an Obama-Biden administration, he said.

The Real Clear Politics aggregation of polls taken Oct. 27 indicates the presidential race in North Carolina is a toss up with McCain currently holding a tenuous 49-48 lead.