Before he accepted Barack Obama's offer to join his presidential ticket, Joe Biden got a promise from Obama: that he would be there for "every critical decision," Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

Speaking to ABC's "This Week," Biden said he believes the vice president's role is to provide "the best, sagest, most accurate, most insightful advice and recommendations he or she can make to a president to help them make some of the very, very important decisions that have to be made."

When Obama talked to him about the vice-presidential slot, Biden recalled, "I said, 'I don't want to be picked unless you're picking me for my judgment. I don't want to be the guy that goes out and has a specific assignment. ... I want a commitment from you that in every important decision you'll make, every critical decision, economic and political, as well as foreign policy, I'll get to be in the room.'"

Biden said President-elect Obama has kept the promise, having Biden in the room for all of his decisions about who will fill key posts in the administration.

Biden will have a specific assignment as the new administration gets under way, however. Come Inauguration Day, he will be the working families czar, so to speak.

On Sunday, Obama's transition team announced the new "White House Task Force on Working Families" -- a major initiative targeted at "raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America."

The initiative will be chaired by Biden.

Other members of the task force will include the secretaries of labor, health and human services, and commerce, as well as the directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Domestic Policy Counsel, and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.

In an interview with ABC's "This Week," Biden said it's a "discrete job that's going to last only for a certain period of time."

"The one thing that we use as a yardstick of economic success of our administration: Is the middle class growing? Is the middle class getting better? Is the middle class no longer being left behind? And we'll look at everything from college affordability to after-school programs, the things that affect people's daily lives. I will be the guy honchoing that policy," he said.

Biden said he will have the authority to get a consensus among the task force -- but will use his relationship with the president if a consensus isn't reached.

"If in fact there is no consensus, [I'd] go to the president of the United States and say, 'Mr. President, I think we should be doing this, cabinet member so-and-so thinks that. You're going to have to resolve what it is we think we should do.' "

Obama has set up several key goals for the task force, including expanding education and training; improving work and family balance; a focus on labor standards, including workplace safety; and protecting working-family incomes and retirement security.

So what power will the new task force have in shaping policy?

According to the transition team, Biden and other members "will expedite administrative reforms, propose Executive orders, and develop legislative and public policy proposals that can be of special importance to working families."

"My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America's middle-class and working families. They will be front and center every day in our work in the White House," said Obama in a statement. "And this Task Force will be one vehicle we will use to ensure that we never forget that commitment."

And in line with the Obama team's pledge of full transparency, the task force will issue annual reports, available online to the public.

Anna Burger, chairwoman of Change To Win -- a group made up of seven unions -- hailed the announcement.

"[It] shows that President-elect Obama is committed to middle class families and change truly is coming to Washington. Working people finally have an administration that is willing and eager to take action to address their needs," she said in a statement. "The White House Task Force on Working Families is a vital first step toward restoring our economy and making government work for working people again."

In what ABC billed as Biden's first interview as vice president-elect, Biden also discussed the role he played in helping Sen. Hillary Clinton decide to accept Obama's offer to serve as his secretary of state.

"She's one of my close friends. And when this came forward, I did talk to her. She sought me out. I sought her out as well, to assure her that this was real," he said, adding that "there was a lot swirling around" at the time.

Biden said he does not know whether he played a "key" role in helping Clinton make her decision. "It wasn't so much convincing, but I -- they wanted to know my perspective, and I gave my perspective."

Biden also said that the nation's economy "is in much worse shape than we thought it was in," and the immediate goal is to pass another stimulus package to prevent it from "absolutely tanking."

"There is going to be real significant investment," Biden said. "Whether it's $600 billion or more, or $700 billion, the clear notion is, it's a number no one thought about a year ago.

"... The single most important thing we have to do as a new administration -- to be able to have impact on all of the other things we want to do, from foreign policy to domestic policy -- is we've got to begin to stem this bleeding here and begin to stop the loss of jobs in the creation of jobs," said Biden, who also said he had spoken with members of Congress from both parties about a new stimulus.

Obama, meanwhile, has decided to increase his goal for creating new jobs after receiving economic forecasts that suggest the economy is in worse shape than had been predicted, two Democratic officials told CNN Saturday. Watch what Obama has to say about the economy »

The officials said Obama is increasing his goal from 2.5 million to 3 million jobs over the next two years after receiving projections early this week that suggest the recession will be deeper than expected.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A longtime friend of Barack and Michelle Obama has been appointed as a senior adviser to the incoming president.

President-elect Obama, in a statement released Saturday morning by his transition staff, announced that Valerie Jarrett will serve as "senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison."

Jarrett is co-chair of Obama's transition team and was senior adviser for his presidential campaign. She became the president and CEO of The Habitat Co. on January 31, 2007, and was also the company's vice president. The Habitat Co. develops and manages residential apartments and condominiums.

Before joining The Habitat Co., Jarrett served for eight years in government for the city of Chicago, Illinois. She was deputy corporation counsel for finance and development, then deputy chief of staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley and finally became commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development.

Jarrett met Barack Obama when she hired Michelle Obama for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago and has been very close to the two ever since. Watch who might be the next secretary of state »

The transition team also made official Saturday the hiring of Ron Klain as chief of staff to the vice president.

Klain was also chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, but he's no stranger to Vice President-elect Joe Biden, having served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden was the committee chairman.

Klain also served as general counsel of Gore's 2000 Florida recount effort, and was portrayed by actor Kevin Spacey in an HBO movie about the event.

This year Klain helped with debate preparation for both Obama and Biden.

"Ron Klain has been a trusted adviser of mine for over 20 years," a statement from Biden said Saturday morning. "He brings extraordinary judgment, a deep understanding of the important policy issues facing our nation, a wide range of experience in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, as well as a unique understanding of how the vice president's office works."

The transition team also announced Saturday that Phil Schiliro will serve as assistant to the president for legislative affairs. Schiliro is director of congressional relations for the Obama transition team. Before that, he was a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign.

Schiliro has worked in Congress for more than 25 years, in positions including chief of staff to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, and policy director for then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and staff director for the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee

Sen. John McCain's campaign released an ominous ad Friday invoking Sen. Joe Biden, who said earlier this week that the world will soon test "Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy."

The ad plays heavily edited clips of Biden's remarks over images of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well as stock videos of tanks, terrorists and a crying child.

"Listen to Joe Biden, talking about what electing Barack Obama will mean," the ad begins before introducing Biden's words from Sunday: "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama. ... The world is looking. ... We're going to have an international crisis ... to test the mettle of this guy. ... I guarantee you it's going to happen."

The ad concludes, "It doesn't have to happen. Vote McCain." Watch a report on the mud being slung »

The McCain campaign said it will be putting the ad on airwaves in 14 battleground states.

The ad comes a day after McCain spent the day addressing economic issues on the campaign trail in Florida and as Obama takes a campaigning hiatus to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii.

Obama, who leads McCain 51 percent to 42 percent, according to Thursday's CNN poll of polls, will be replaced by his wife, Michelle Obama. She will fill in for the Democratic presidential candidate in Columbus and Akron, two stops in the battleground state of Ohio.

McCain will visit Colorado, a state that President Bush won in 2000 and 2004. The most recent CNN poll of polls shows Obama leading McCain there 50 percent to 44 percent.

McCain has events scheduled in Denver, Colorado Springs and Durango. Durango is on the border with New Mexico, where Obama leads by 5 percentage points, according to the most recent Research & Polling Inc. survey conducted for the Albuquerque Journal.

Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, have both made stops in Colorado this week, and Obama will campaign there Sunday.

Biden will make Friday stops in Charleston, West Virginia; Danville, Virginia; and Martinsville, Virginia. Martinsville is on the border with the battleground state of North Carolina. Watch what's next for the candidates »

Obama campaigned Thursday in Indiana. He then flew to Honolulu, Hawaii, to spend the day with his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, whose health is deteriorating after she suffered a broken hip. He traveled directly to her home after landing at the airport.

Obama said in an interview for Friday's "Good Morning America" that Dunham has been "inundated" with flowers and messages from strangers who read about her in Obama's 1995 book, "Dreams From My Father."

"Maybe she is getting a sense of long-deserved recognition toward the end of her life," he said.

Obama resumes campaigning Saturday with visits to three Western states. The campaign has not specified which states, but New Mexico is expected to be among them.

Palin also will have to take a break from campaigning Friday as she and her husband, Todd Palin, are scheduled to give depositions in St. Louis, Missouri, on the July firing of Walt Monegan as the Alaska public safety commissioner.

Alaska's Personnel Board is looking into whether Palin unfairly fired Monegan.

The Alaska governor is scheduled to deliver a speech Friday morning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before traveling to Missouri. She will hold a rally in Springfield before giving her deposition. Afterward, she is scheduled to drop the hockey puck at the St. Louis Blues game against the Los Angeles Kings.

On Thursday night, Palin continued her line of attack on Obama, criticizing his association with domestic-terrorist-turned-activist William Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the candidate's former minister.

"What did those characters see in Barack Obama? Why would they have wanted to be associated with him?" Palin asked during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity in Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Also Thursday, Palin addressed the Republican National Committee's purchase of $150,000 in pricey clothing for her, telling the Chicago Tribune that most of the clothes are still in her campaign airplane.

The designer clothing she has worn, she said, will be returned, auctioned off or donated to charity.

"If people knew how Todd and I and our kids shop so frugally. My favorite shop is a consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska, called Out of the Closet," she said. "It is not Fifth Avenue-type of shopping."

She further suggested that gender bias was driving the controversy.

"Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary race. Do you remember the conversations that took place about her, say superficial things that they don't talk about with men -- her wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that?" she asked. "That's a bit of that double standard."

 

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden ripped into recent comments by his Republican counterpart that suggested that some places in the U.S. are more "pro-America" than others.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told a fundraiser in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday night:

"We believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation," she said.

"This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans," Palin added.

On Friday, Palin clarified her comments.

"It's all pro-America. I was just reinforcing the fact that there, where I was, there's good patriotic people there in these rallies, so excited about positive change and reform of government that's coming that they are so appreciative of hearing our message, hearing our plan. Not any one area of America is more pro-America patriotically than others," she said.

At a rally in Mesilla, New Mexico, on Friday, Biden responded to those comments in a vociferous tone.

"I hope it was just a slip on her part and she doesn't really mean it. But she said, it was reported she said, that she likes to visit, 'pro-American' parts of the country," he said to loud boos.

"It doesn't matter where you live, we all love this country, and I hope it gets through. We all love this country," he said. "We are one nation, under God, indivisible. We are all patriotic. We all love our country in every part of this nation! And I'm tired. I am tired, tired, tired, tired of the implications about patriotism."

Meanwhile, the presidential campaigns were on the offensive Friday, with Sen. Barack Obama criticizing Sen. John McCain's health care plan and Palin scrutinizing Obama's ties to a community activist group.

The candidates and their running mates were spread out across the country, with Palin traveling to Ohio and Indiana; McCain in Florida; and Biden in New Mexico and Nevada.

Obama was in Virginia, a traditional Republican state that has not backed a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But according to a CNN/TIME/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted October 11-14, Obama has opened up a 10-point lead over McCain, 53 percent to 43 percent.

At a campaign rally in Roanoke, Obama compared McCain's health care proposals to drug advertising.

It's like those ads for prescription drugs. They start out and everybody's running in the fields and everybody's happy, then there's a little fine print that says, you know, the side effects they may include," Obama said to laughter from the crowd.

He also highlighted McCain's plan to tackle the Medicare system, which provides health benefits for senior citizens and others.

"It turns out, Sen. McCain would pay for part of his plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare -- $882 billion worth ... to pay for an ill-conceived, badly thought-through health care plan that won't provide more health care to people -- even though Medicare is already facing a looming shortfall," he said.

Shortly after Obama's speech, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement that unlike Obama's "risky plan," McCain's plans "do not punish struggling businesses with fines and taxes, and they certainly do not cut a single benefit for Medicare or Medicaid -- Obama is simply lying."

According to McCain's Web site, the Arizona senator wants to "reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination. Medicaid and Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or mismanagement."

McCain also returned to the campaign trail Friday, traveling to Florida -- a state the Republicans won in the last two presidential elections.

A CNN Poll of Polls calculated Friday shows Obama leading McCain by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent. Watch how Obama has opened up a lead in the polls »

A fired-up McCain told a crowd in Miami that while Americans are facing hard times and the nation's financial system is in crisis, "the next president won't have time to get used to the office."

"He won't have the luxury of studying up on the issues before he acts. He will have to act immediately. And to do that, he will need experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action to take this country in a new direction," McCain said, referring to Obama. Watch more of McCain's comments »

Over the weekend, McCain will head to North Carolina, another state that Republicans have counted on in recent elections but is now considered a tossup. Watch how North Carolina has become a battleground state »

Meanwhile, Palin, McCain's running mate, lashed out Friday at Obama's connection to the ACORN community activist group, which is under fire for alleged voter registration fraud.

The group -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- faces allegations of filing fraudulent voter registrations in Nevada and faces investigations in other states.

Palin, campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio, told a crowd in West Chester that Obama "won't tell you the full truth ... on his connections to ACORN ... under investigation for rampant voter fraud."

The FBI confirmed Tuesday that it is investigating ACORN's registration efforts. Palin accused the group of "rampant voter fraud," although technically it is being accused of voter registration fraud.

"In this election, especially here in Ohio, you're going to be asked to choose between a candidate who will not disavow a group committing voter fraud and a leader who will not tolerate it," Palin said.

Brian Mellor, an ACORN attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, said the group has its own quality control process and has fired workers in the past -- including workers in Gary, Indiana. But he said allegations that his organization committed fraud is a government attempt to keep people disenfranchised.

"We believe their purpose is to attack ACORN and suppress votes," he said.

Palin said her campaign is calling on Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, to release communications his campaign had with the group. Read more about Obama and ACORN

"[We] don't want to turn the Buckeye State into the ACORN state," she said to loud cheers.

Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor responded in a statement Friday, saying: "We have not worked with ACORN at all in the general election. Rather than make these false, desperate attacks, the McCain-Palin campaign should release an economic plan that actually helps the middle class instead of giving billions in tax cuts to big corporations."