crowd, joe biden took to the stage in the swing state of north carolina, seemingly unfazed by the torrent of bad headlines his disjointed debate performance had generated. crowd: joe! joe! folks. i don t walk as easy as i used to. i don t speak as smoothly as i used to. i don t debate as well as i used to. but i know what i do know. i know how to tell the truth! crowd: yeah! he seemed for all the world like a new man, reading from the teleprompter with a passion that had been all too absent the night before. i know, like millions of americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up. it was a far cry from the rasping and rambling performance on the debate stage that was all too often painful to watch. everything we have to do with, uh. look. if. we finally beat medicare. it s left his party in a state of crisis. yet, despite rumblings about replacing their candidate, publicly, at least, democrats are circling the wagons. referring to his own lacklustre performance in