- Obama campaign says Biden is a key asset despite his gaffe-prone tendencies
- "You can say lot of things about Joe Biden, but you shouldn't underestimate him"
- Biden's biggest job on the trail has been to attack Romney and Ryan
- The vice president has left open the possibility for a run in 2016
Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN) -- Joe Biden has had many big moments in his long political career, but Thursday's speech setting up Barack Obama's presidential acceptance speech will be one of his biggest.
Biden has as much at stake as his boss. And he has a tough act to follow after former President Bill Clinton delivered a rousing address Wednesday, one jam-packed with full-throated endorsements of the current president.
But while he's been criticized for his gaffe-prone tendencies, Obama's campaign maintains the vice president is a key asset on the campaign trail -- and political observers largely agree. The former six-term senator from Delaware is known for his appeal to blue-collar, left-of-center Democrats, a crucial voting bloc Obama needs to shore up support for November.
And Biden, like Clinton, knows how to be in the spotlight.
"You can say lot of things about Joe Biden, but you shouldn't underestimate him. He's a guy who has a lot of experience. He's a guy who knows how to step up and give a speech," Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates said Thursday on CNN. "And he knows how to debate."
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How much will he go on the attack?
As vice president, Biden's biggest job on the campaign trail is to take on the dirty work for his boss. Though he frequently says Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are "decent" men in his stump speeches, Biden quickly pivots to making loaded digs at the GOP ticket.
A recent example: Saying the Romney-Ryan team was a "stark choice" for voters, Biden mocked the duo's support for Ryan's budget plan.
"What's gutsy about giving millionaires another tax break? What's gutsy about gutting Medicare, Medicaid, education? What's gutsy?" Biden said last month, days after Ryan was announced as Romney's running mate.
As one who calls himself "middle class Joe," he's often deployed to speak to labor union groups or blue-collar workers in the Rust Belt. In July, he charged Romney with wanting to attack public workers, based on the Republican candidate's call for major spending cuts in government.
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"You guys are under full blown assault. This is the greatest assault on the working class people and their unions that I've seen in my lifetime," Biden said at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) convention in Los Angeles.
Biden took the attack line further, saying Republicans -- led by Romney -- have placed union jobs in the crosshairs.
"They hear labor, and they think 'enemy.' They hear labor and they see an opportunity to try to scapegoat labor for the problems they created," Biden said.
But how much will Biden bring the negativity Thursday night, and how much of it will be focused on Romney? Biden may choose to concentrate on Ryan and give a thorough preview of the upcoming showdown for October's vice presidential debate. Since Ryan was tapped as Romney's running mate last month, Biden has particularly made the House Budget chairman a target, as have many of the speakers this week.
Could this be a redeeming moment?
The vice president made headlines several times this year over slip-ups he made in speeches and interviews. Most recently, Biden sparked controversy when he told a Virginia crowd at a campaign event last month that Romney's Wall Street regulatory policies would "put y'all back in chains." Some conservatives quickly reacted to the remark, charging Biden with using a racially charged undertone in the statement.
Former Rep. Artur Davis, an African-American Democrat who recently turned Republican, especially took offense to the comment.
"It brought back memories for me," Davis said on CNN's "The Situation Room." "It brought back memories of these Democratic politicians in the South, who think they can go before crowds and say one thing and nobody else will hear it, and they'll somehow get a cheer in the room and that they can blithely go on about their business."
The campaign said the remark was being taken out of context and pointed to Republicans who have used the word "unshackle" -- a term that also brings to mind the image of chains -- when referring to the economy.
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Obama himself came to Biden's defense shortly after the comment, telling People magazine that the vice president's remarks meant "you, consumers, the American people, will be a lot worse off if we repeal these (Wall Street reform) laws, as the other side is suggesting."
"Joe Biden has been an outstanding vice president," he said. "He is passionate about what's happening in middle-class families."
Just three months earlier Biden also found himself at the center of a dust-up when he prematurely came out in support of same-sex marriage during an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press." The comment quickly spurred advocacy groups to put pressure on the president to follow in Biden's footsteps and do the same.
The White House maintains Obama was already planning to announce his own support for marriage equality sometime before the election, but Biden's comments forced the president to move up his timeline and officially back the issue three days later, much sooner than planned.
Although it was one of the biggest policy shifts of his presidency, the decision that ignited Obama's liberal base ended up being partly overshadowed by all the drama. Biden personally apologized to the president over the snafu.
A Pew poll released last month showed Biden with low popularity: 27% of respondents said he has done either an "excellent" or "good job" as the president's number two, while 56% said he does only a poor or fair job.
Among Democrats specifically, 51% said he has done an excellent or good job, while 36% said he has performed poorly or fairly. The numbers aren't entirely surprising, given that his main role on the campaign trail is to lead the offensive against Romney.
But Biden, with the largest audience he's had in a while, will have a chance to touch up his image and may try to remind voters of the charm and likability he's been known for in his more than three decades of politics.
Will we see signs for 2016?
It may be four years away, but it's hard not to wonder whether Biden has a presidential bid on his mind. The longtime politician, who's already run for the White House twice, has done little to quell speculation that he's considering another go.
While Biden would be 73 in four years, the vice president raised eyebrows in October when he left the door open to a 2016 campaign.
"I'll make up my mind on that later," Biden said in an interview on "State of the Union." "I'm in one of the, probably the best shape I've been in in my life. ... I'm doing pretty well. I'm enjoying what I'm doing, and as long as I do, I'm going to continue to do it."
His wife has also had her part in stirring the guesswork.
"I don't know whether this is his last campaign," Jill Biden said in June on NBC's "Today."
Saying the vice president was focused on his current re-election bid with Obama, Jill Biden stressed she takes "one campaign at a time."
Asked, however, if she would support her husband of nearly 35 years in a third presidential run, Jill Biden said she always supported him in his White House aspirations.
"Joe would make a great president. I always felt -- last time when he ran, I supported him," she said
Political observers will no doubt be closely following just how much Biden talks about himself versus the president. The question is, will he use the prime-time slot to slip in a few self-promotional tidbits, or will he focus squarely on bolstering the president?
CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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