Vice President Biden Slams Mitt Romney in Op-Ed

In an op-ed in the Des Moines Register, Vice President Biden slams Mitt Romney's policies on the economy, particularly on entitlements.

Biden's piece comes just 11 days before Iowans will head to the caucuses to pick their GOP nominee.

After taking a dip in polls in a few weeks after rival Newt Gingrich surged, Romney is now back in the top slot in the Hawkeye state.

Romney had criticized President Obama's policies earlier in the week in a speech in New Hampshire where he said, "We are Americans. And we will not surrender our dreams to the failures of this President. We are bigger than the misguided policies and weak leadership of one man."

Biden fired back in the op-ed saying, "Romney appears satisfied to settle for an economy in which fewer people succeed, while the majority of Americans are left to tread water or fall behind. His proposal would actually double down on the policies that caused the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression and accelerated a decades-long assault on the middle class."

Romney charged the Obama administration was creating an "Entitlement Society."

To that, Biden fired back, "Romney also misleadingly suggests that the president and I are creating an "Entitlement Society," whereby government provides everything for its people without regard to merit, as opposed to what he calls an "Opportunity Society," where everything is merit-based and every man is left to fend for himself."

Biden didn't say if he watched the speech, but that he "read about it."

Romney reacted to the op-ed Friday morning in New Hampshire, saying he was a bit surprised to wake up the editorial.   He called it a "gaffe" - a reference to the vice president who is known for misspeaking at times.  He said, "I thought now who would have the chutzpah - there you go - or the delusion to imagine that I was responsible for the decline of this economy over the last three years."

"He needs to get out and meet with people. He seems to think that he and the president have made things better. They haven't made things better. Has Obama care made it more likely for businesses to hire people? No," Romney went on to say.

The president himself has said he won't weigh in until the majority of candidates have been "voted off the island," but this is a signal that perhaps the re-election campaign sees Romney as Obama's most likely contender.

The GOP race however is not locked in by any means, with many observers, even Romney and Gingrich themselves, saying the Republican nominee fight could go well into the spring.

Read the full op-ed here.