ASSOCIATED PRESS Vice President Joe Biden, in his speech Friday to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, seemed to be aiming at an older generation of Democrats.

WASHINGTON ― Twelve years ago, then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden’s second bid for the presidency began with a gaffe. The same day Biden made his presidential bid official, The New York Observer published an interview where Biden evaluated the man who would later become his boss. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said of future President Barack Obama. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” Biden held a conference call with reporters to clean up the remarks, saying he “really regret[ted] that some have taken totally out of context my use of the world ‘clean.’” Obama essentially let Biden off the hook, only objecting to the “historical inaccuracy” of not acknowledging prior African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm. The gaffe, in the end, didn’t damage his standing within the Democratic Party. Eighteen months later, Obama selected Biden as his running mate. The party’s establishment embraced him as an elder statesman who could cut deals with Republicans and go head-to-head with foreign leaders. Democratic voters turned him into Uncle Joe, a goofy but well-meaning campaigner who could campaign even in the most conservative parts of the political map. As he weighs a third bid for president, he’s one of the two leading candidates in public polling. Biden, who is under fire for his history of touching women inappropriately, opened his speech to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers with a joke about having “permission” to hug Lonnie Stephenson, the union president who introduced him. The joke generated ripples of laughter among the mostly white, mostly male and mostly older union members gathered in the basement of the Washington Hilton, and frustrated eye-rolls and clenched fists of anger on Twitter. At the end of his speech, Biden held an impromptu press conference and offered an apology of sorts for his joke. “It wasn’t my intent to make light of anyone’s discomfort. I realize it’s my responsibility to not invade the space of anyone who is uncomfortable in this regard,” he told reporters as union members yelled “Run, Joe, Run” and “We need you!” in the background. “I literally think it is incumbent on me and everyone else to make sure if you embrace someone, you touch someone, it’s with their consent regardless of your intentions.” Apology or not, Biden’s comments during his 40-minute speech to the union and his brief back-and-forth with reporters made it clear the the 76-year-old Biden, who was an elected official for 47 years, doesn’t plan on changing his unscripted style or center-left ideology, and is willing to bet that the party around him hasn’t changed much either. It’s a strategy that makes sense for an official with Biden’s deal-making instincts and long, frequently problematic voting record. “If you look at all the polling data and you look at the results, the party has not moved,” Biden said. “The fact of the matter is that most of the members of the Democratic Party are liberal-moderate Democrats in the traditional sense.” He noted he campaigned for 65 Democrats during the 2018 election. “Show me the really left, left, left-wingers who beat a Republican,” he challenged a reporter. “The idea that the Democratic Party has sort of stood on its head, I don’t get it.” Asked what type of Democrat he was, Biden quickly identified himself with the party’s most popular figure: “I’m an Obama-Biden Democrat, man. And I’m proud of it.”

Joe Biden disputes "the idea the Democratic party has been stood on its head."



"I'm an Obama-Biden Democrat, man. And I'm proud of it." https://t.co/ebTwELenZlpic.twitter.com/LkYFcSWG6u — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 5, 2019