Family issues weigh heaviest on Biden as he considers a 2016 campaign

Vice President Biden is weighing a potential 2016 presidential bid as Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton stumbles. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

By Dan Balz August 24 at 8:36 PM

As Vice President Biden weighs a possible run for president, personal issues stand as the biggest unresolved obstacle, with Biden trying to gauge whether his family is emotionally prepared for a grueling campaign while still grieving the recent death of his son Beau, according to people familiar with his deliberations.
Biden is now leaning more toward running than he was earlier in the summer, though he is still weeks from a decision. He thinks his White House experience over the past 6  ¹/₂ years, coupled with his grounding in middle-class issues during a long career in the Senate, makes him well equipped to serve as President Obama’s successor.
But following the loss of Beau Biden in May, the elder Biden is concerned about whether his relatives could handle a bid for the presidency and its time demands on the family patriarch. Advisers know that only the vice president can make the judgment about the readiness of his family.
Biden’s advisers said he is on a timetable to decide about running by the end of the summer. That gives him roughly another month, although a decision could come sooner. Should he run, he would enter as an underdog against former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has amassed a huge campaign war chest and is months ahead of the vice president in organizing in the states with the earliest contests.
Biden would be starting almost from scratch, but the mechanics of financing and staffing a campaign appear less daunting to those around him than they once did. At the same time, the vice president would not have unlimited time to begin assembling an operation.