• Biden on Hardball: President's 'firewall' will hold

    By NBC's Carrie Dann

    Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday predicted a decisive Electoral College victory for the Democratic presidential ticket, saying that the president's midwestern "firewall" will hold.

    Chris Matthews sits down with Vice President Joe Biden in Ohio to talk about the stakes of the election, President Obama's record, Mitt Romney's misleading Jeep ad, and more.

    "I think that we're going to win.  I don't think it's going to be close in the Electoral College," said the vice president in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews after a rally outside Toledo.

    "I think the firewall here of Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa -- I think it's going to hold firm," he said.

    Biden's certainty  didn't extend to the two major battlegrounds of Virginia and florida, which public polling have shown to be trending slightly in the Republicans' favor. He told Matthews that Democrats have an "even chance" in those states after predicting wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Nevada and Iowa.

    But even without the combined 42 electoral votes of the two Southern swing states, the Obama-Biden ticket could still win a decisive Electoral College victory if Democrats hold midwestern and western states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Colorado.

    Biden was also upbeat about the possibilities for compromise in Congress after the election, despite his frequent lambasting of the Tea Party's influence in the United States House and Senate.

    "We need leaders that can control their party," he said. "And I think you're going to see the fever break." 

  • Santorum's message to Wis.: This bud's for you

    By NBC's Carrie Dann

    CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. -- Rick Santorum has a message for the people of Wisconsin: This bud's for you.

    A steel-town-raised Pennsylvania conservative Catholic, Santorum spent Friday making the case that he's simply the most relatable candidate to the Badger State voters who will head to the polls on Tuesday. That includes bowling jaunts, fish fries, campaign rallies in neighborhood bars, and --- yes -- a shoutout to the occasional "alcoholic beverage."

    "The traditions and the culture [were] not that different," he told voters in Eau Claire of his upbringing compared to the lifestyles of Wisconsin voters. "My dad bowled in a bowling league, and we had alcoholic beverages at home!"

    "Not that you guys drink and bowl a lot, no offense," he joked at one point, winning giggles and applause.

    Santorum's references to the cultural connoisseurship of booze, along with critiques on the finer points of cheese curds and shoutouts to Lambeau Field's charms, come alongside his urging for voters not to "settle" on Mitt Romney, a "CEO-in-chief" candidate who he says can't relate to regular folks.

    "We need someone who can talk and relate to folks who are out there batting in this economy feeling like they're swimming alone," he said. "Someone who can relate to them, who maybe doesn't talk about being the CEO of a company and having, you know, jokes about firing people."

    Romney, a Mormon, does not drink alcohol. 

    Santorum later told reporters that his embrace of a cold one or two was simply a description of his upbringing, not an effort to jab at any of his opponents.

    "I'm not trying to draw any contrast,” he said after a rally at a Pabst Blue Ribbon sign-festooned tiki bar in Chippewa Falls. "I'm just telling people a little bit about me and my background and you know what I did growing up."

    The son of an Italian immigrant, Santorum added that drinking wine with dinner was a cultural habit in his youth, and he hinted that the effects of excessive imbibing were only clear to him later in life.

    "Growing up in an Italian family, wine was a food as far as you're concerned. I didn't think of it as anything else until, well, later on and then we won't get into that," he joked.