Joe Biden for President in 2016? Vice President Does not Dismiss Running

Could Joe Biden be preparing a 2016 run for president? And competing with Hillary Clinton?

Could Vice President Joe Biden be eyeing a run for President in 2016?

For now, Biden is focused on helping Barack Obama get re-elected in 2012, he said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. But while emphasizing that goal, he did not dismiss a run for the White House himself in 2016.

My one focus now is getting the president re-elected, Biden said on CNN's State of the Union. That is the focus. I'll make up my mind on [2016] later.

When pressed further, Biden said, I'm not closing anything.

And so, without a slew of Democratic candidates in the 2012 election, many pundits now place their focus on the possibilities for 2016. Speculation has centered, as well, on a possible run by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who Obama defeated for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

In an interview Friday on the Today show on NBC, Clinton tried to dismiss those rumors.

No, Clinton said, when asked if she would run for president in 2016. I'm very privileged to have had the opportunities to serve my country. I'm really old-fashioned. I feel like I've made my contribution. I've done the best I can.

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.

Biden said he was in the best shape of his life at 68 years old. He has run for president twice before -- in 1988 and 2008 -- and considered runs in other years. In 1988, Michael Dukakis earned the Democratic nomination. In 2008, of course, it was Obama, who tagged him as his running mate.

The United States has never elected a president for a first term who was in his 70s. Ronald Reagan was the oldest, first elected at 69. He was re-elected four years later.

Biden would be 73 on Election Day in 2016. John McCain, the Republican candidate for president in 2008 who lost to Obama, was 72.

I'm enjoying what I'm doing, Biden said. And as long as I do, I'm going to continue to do it. We'll find out. Let's get the president re-elected.