Scranton (Pennsylvania, US), Oct. 13 : Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden has said that the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain has stooped to stunts and “ugly inferences” because it was losing and was out of ideas.

Rousing a crowd estimated by the police at 6,000 on an otherwise quiet day on the campaign trail, Biden said McCain’s campaign had become erratic, a reference to McCain’s changing positions on the financial crisis and his decision two weeks ago to suspend his campaign briefly to deal with it.

“Presidents have to supply steady leadership,” the New York Times quoted Biden as telling a friendly crowd in this northeastern Pennsylvania city on Sunday where he spent the first 10 years of his life.

He said McCain had become increasingly desperate and negative because he saw the presidency “slipping from his grasp.”

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee dismissed Biden’s remarks as “standard stuff” from the Democratic ticket. He declined to comment further.

The Scranton event drew a larger-than-usual crowd for Biden because of the presence of the Clintons. Bill Clinton remains popular in this heavily Democratic, blue-collar city, and Mrs. Clinton’s father grew up and is buried here. The Clintons were in Scranton on Sunday to attend the christening of her brother Tony’s newborn son, Simon Joseph Rodham.

Clinton, in brief remarks at the beginning of the program, spoke as much about his wife as about the Obama-Biden ticket. People close to Clinton say he remains bitter about suggestions by Obama’s supporters that he incited racial animosity during the primaries in support of his wife’s candidacy.

Obama has been sparing in his use of the former president as a campaign surrogate, although Clinton left Scranton immediately after speaking to campaign for Obama in Virginia, a state, Mr. Clinton noted, that had not gone Democratic in a presidential contest for 40 years.

He spoke warmly of Biden, whom he has known for more than two decades. He said the choice of vice president was more crucial this year than in the past because the next president would be consumed by the global financial emergency.

In her remarks, Mrs. Clinton offered an updated version of an applause line from her own campaign, saying: “It took a Democratic president to clean up after the last President Bush. It’s going to take a Democratic president to clean up after this President Bush.”

Biden barely mentioned his Republican vice-presidential rival, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. (ANI)