Hillary may be a more qualified VP than me, Biden admits

It was a gift that the McCain campaign could not resist pouncing on. Barack Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, admitted in an unguarded moment that Hillary Clinton may be more qualified to be vice-president than he is.

Mr Biden was probably acknowledging what many Democrats privately believe to be true. Some of the party's most experienced operatives are now fearful that the Republicans are controlling the election.

"Let's get that straight," Mr Biden said, while campaigning in New Hampshire on Wednesday night. "[Hillary's] a truly close personal friend; she is qualified to be president of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be vice-president of the United States of America and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me, but she is first-rate."

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The Republican team quickly sent out a video of the moment to maximise coverage. Mr McCain is already avidly courting Mrs Clinton's supporters, especially white women, and the polls indicate he is making inroads.

Mr Biden's remarks are unlikely to do any real damage to the campaign, but they have exposed a deepening unease among senior Democrats at the way the Mc Cain/Palin camp has seized the upper hand in the final hectic weeks of the election.

Such is the degree of concern, that a rattled Mr Obama had lunch yesterday with Bill Clinton. The danger the Democrats face of losing the third election in a row is so great that Mr Clinton has agreed to go on the road for Mr Obama, despite lingering antagonism between the two men.

From public and private polls the Democrats are finding that the Republicans are neutralising many of the advantages the Obama campaign thought it had secured. Despite the parlous state of the US economy, a USA Today/Gallup poll is reporting a split on which candidate "can better handle the economy". Mr Obama is ahead at 48 per cent, but Mr McCain, who openly confesses to knowing little about economic matters, is hard on his heels at 45 per cent. At the end of August, Senator Obama had a 16-point lead on the issue.

On Mr Obama's theme of bringing Change to Washington an ABC News/Washington Post poll that asked voters "who can bring about needed change to Washington", has Mr McCain trailing Mr Obama by 12 points, up from 32 points in June.

Many Democrats are confident that Mr Obama has the time to retake control of the election. The bounce caused by Sarah Palin's entry into the race is expected to fade as her record and qualifications come under the microscope. That may happen this weekend when she exposes herself to the media, conducting interviews with ABC News back home in Alaska.

Bob Beckel who ran Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign, says that instead of being perceived as a reformer who opposed federal subsidies, or "pork", Mrs Palin, the Governor of Alaska, lobbied for, and received, $770m for oil-rich Alaska, which is among the top three states to have received aid. Democrats also hope voters will realise that Governor Palin is an extremist on social issues who opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest.

For the Obama campaign the biggest problem is that entrenched Democratic vulnerabilities remain and Mrs Palin has reawakened those liberal weaknesses.

The seven key battlegrounds

This election will be decided in a handful of battleground states and the two campaigns are rapidly reorganising travel plans, opening new offices and deciding where to spend millions of dollars on advertisements targeted at a relatively small pool of swing voters.

Barack Obama promised to redraw the electoral map of the United States by campaigning across 50 states. But because of the way Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, has energised the conservative base, his campaign's best-laid plans are increasingly unravelling.

Whether they are called swing states, battleground or even purple states, the campaigns want to know whether they have a reasonable chance of winning a state's electoral college votes under the winner-takes-all system. There is no advantage in racking up extra votes in a state that is sure to be lost, so presidential candidates steer clear of states they are expected to win or lose by a wide margin. Much of the focus now is on Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada, Michigan and New Mexico.

That is why the Obama campaign has abruptly stopped spending money in Georgia. The Democrats had been counting on Pennsylvania as well as several western states, but Mrs Palin has given the Republicans an opportunity to push back. Ohio has become a cliffhanger and even Pennsylvania is in doubt. Already the candidates are hurrying to states where voting is imminent.

Leonard Doyle