Biden Says Door Not Closed on 2016 Presidential Bid
Vice President Joe Biden told CNN on Sunday his focus at the moment was getting President Barack Obama reelected in 2012 but he had not closed the door on another presidential run in 2016.
“My one focus now is getting the president re-elected,” Biden told CNN’s chief political correspondent Candy Crowley when she asked if he had ever thought he should run for president in 2016. But the former senator from Delaware added, “I’ll make up my mind on that later. And we’ll find out, you know, let’s get the president reelected.”
Biden, who has run unsuccessfully for president twice, in 1988 and 2008, said he was in “probably the best shape I’ve been in my life … I’m doing pretty well. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, and as long as I do, I’m going to continue to do it.”
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“That’s a possibility; you are not closing that door?” Crowley asked.
“No, I am not closing anything,” replied Biden, 68.
Crowley again pressed if he thought he was fit for the president’s job. “I wouldn’t have run for president in the first place, and I don’t think the president would have picked me, unless he thought I’d be good at the job,” he said.
As of now, Biden stressed, “We’ve got the order right: President Obama, Vice President Biden.”
Later, analyzing her interview with the vice president, Crowley said it was a “clear and admitted refusal” to rule out his presidential run in 2016. “So look for Biden 2016 bumper stickers coming to a store near you.”
U.S. Senate’s Historical Office data says 14 former vice presidents have made it to the Oval Office, but half of them did so after a president died.
In 2008, Biden withdrew from the presidential race after he received less than 1 percent of the votes in the January Iowa caucus.
Like Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. But she says she will not go for another presidential bid in 2016.
“I have done the best I can,” Clinton recently said on NBC’s “Today Show.” “But now I want to try some other things. I want to get back to writing and maybe some teaching, working on women and girls around the world … I have made my contribution, I’m very grateful I’ve had my time to serve, but I think it’s time for others to step up.”
