Not so coincidentally, he also had high praise for Connecticut Senator Chrisopher Dodd and Fourth District Congressman Jim Himes, who accompanied him when he spoke at a parking lot just off Exit 46 of the Merritt Parkway - a road currently being repaved with Recovery Act money.
Dodd's approval rating is currently less than 50 percent, with five Republicans and one Democrat ready to challenge him for his Senate seat next year. Nonetheless, Biden said, "I gotta say to the press, this is not a political event."
He called Dodd, "my best friend in the Senate," and said that he, Biden, had been a Senator longer than all but 17 other people.
It was long enough to know, "I've never seen a time, when in the midst of a crisis, when two of the three most critical issues facing the nation landed on one man's plate, as the de facto and actual chairman of two committees [Health and Banking] and the third committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, where he is the sharpest tool in the kit. I've never seen anybody, Chris, who can handle the pressure like you handle it." Biden said to Dodd.
Of Himes, Dodd said, "The new Congressman you've got is the real deal." He spoke of a friend from his school days, who always said to the basketball coach, "Put me in, coach. I'm ready to play."
"This guy is ready to play," Biden said of Himes, adding, "As a freshman Congressman, you've been asked to take some tough votes. You've done the right thing," noting that he voted on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Biden gave both members of Congress credit for "teamwork" on that score.
He said that one of the longest walks a parent can take is to go up a short stairs to tell their kid that they can't join that Little League team or go to the same school next year, because Mom or Dad doesn't have a job and they have to move, as his Dad told him when he was in fourth grade.
"Without Chris Dodd, twice as many would have made that walk," said Biden, adding that Dodd was "leading the fight to keep homeowners in their homes."
Dodd said, "We're in this mess because some folks made bad bets with other people's money. I'm going to write a strong reform bill to make sure that the same mistakes aren't made again."
He spoke of "greedy credit card companies" and creating a new consumer protection system, but he got his biggest applause when he spoke of health care reform and said, "We're going to get that public option."
However,the most obvious example of that Recovery money being put to work on Monday afternoon was the repaving of the nearby Merritt Parkway. A $66 million project, it currently employs about 60 workers and will eventually employ over 100.
Biden said, "These workers are coming from dozens of different cities across Connecticut, picking up a paycheck they might not otherwise have, and they go back home, and guess what, they go out to dinner maybe. They go get their hair cut. They put money back in the community--all those things that keep people employed in those small businesses."
"Every dollar invested in the Merritt pkwy is going to be pumped through the veins of the economy of this state, which is why there are projects like this at 4,900 sites [around the country]. Altogether the Department of Transportation has made $48.1 billion available for roads, airports and construction, creating millions of jobs in the process," the vice-president added.
Biden was quick to point out that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was not, as some thought, just about infrastructure. It involved spending in health care, education, energy and tax relief as well, he said.
He spoke of tax cuts, saying, "People are getting 60 to 80 bucks less withheld from their taxes. That's billions of dollars pouring back into the economy."
He spoke of the $250 cash payments that went to 250,000 Connecticut seniors, "getting a total of $155 million flowing into this economy."
In addition, more than 240,000 Connecticut residents have received expanded unemployment benefits, he said. More than $395 million in state stabilization funds have helped to keep 2,500 teachers on the job, without raising property taxes, he added.
"We're not just resurfacing roads, but we're making sure that there's widespread economic activity," said Biden.
Whether his speech convinced any of the mostly Democratic crowd that Dodd had a future, it did not seem to have an effect on a small handful of people standing outside the parking lot. "Dump Dodd" and "Retire Dodd," said some of the signs.