"I don't think the losses are going to be bad at all," Biden said. "I think we're going to shock the heck out of everybody."

Biden said he was "confident when people take a look at what has happened since we've taken office in November and comparing it to the alternative, we're going to be in great shape."

The vice president said he believes the Obama administration will get credit from voters for helping guide the economy out of recession and passing key legislation on health care and financial reform.

"It's just going to take time," Biden said.

"The election is not until November. And I think we're going to have to firmly make our case."

Obama has launched into campaign mode in recent weeks, hoping to transform the spectacular grassroots support from Democrats and independent voters which propelled him to the presidency in 2008 into a full-bodied platform for his party in the upcoming congressional races.

In a swing through western states earlier this month, Obama sought to brand Republicans as extreme and incompetent, reminding voters the party were in charge when the economy pitched into the deepest recession since the 1930s.

"I think we can make it and especially in the context of who's going to be opposing us," Biden said Sunday.

"Compared to the alternative, I think we're going to get a fair amount of credit by November and I think we're going to do fine."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell meanwhile Sunday insisted voters see the ballooning national debt as a key concern over any achievement from Obama, as he dismissed criticism of Republican obstructionism -- most recently for opposition to extending insurance for the millions of out-of-work Americans.

"We're all for extending unemployment insurance, the question is, when are we going to get serious... about the debt," McConnell said on CNN's "State of the Union" program.

Voters, he said, are most concerned for the trillion-dollar budget deficit, and slammed the Obama White House for going on a "gargantuan spending spree."

The Democrat's House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, however urged a focus on a positive election year, calling to a move beyond the ongoing debate over racism in the conservative "Tea Party" movement that has divided voters.

"What we need to be doing is talking about the issues and solutions and what happened in the past to get us in the ditch we are in," Hoyer told CNN.

"If we do that, this will be a positive election. If we try to inflame differences and create division, that will not be positive and that's what some are doing."

The Tea Party, a mostly conservative grass roots revolt against Obama administration economic and health reform policies, has electrified the Republican Party base ahead of the November elections.

Biden earlier came to the defense of his political foes in the conservative movement, saying that while "some of the Tea Party folks expressed racist views" he added that he "wouldn't characterize the Tea Party as racist."