Joe Biden to jump into presidential race?
Political circles were buzzing Monday with talk that Vice President Joe Biden could make another bid for the Oval Office.
CBS News confirmed Josh Alcorn, a top political aide to Biden's late son, Beau, joined the Draft Biden super PAC that is pushing the vice president to run for president in 2016. In addition to serving as Beau Biden's chief adviser on political and fundraising issues, Alcorn had helped raise money for Biden's 2008 presidential bid.
Biden has always left the door open for a run, but hasn't made any overt steps toward a bid, either, notes CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.
Hillary Clinton's e-mail troubles and soft poll numbers in some areas have reignited questions about a backup.
The latest round of speculation about a Biden try was sparked by a column in The New York Times.
Maureen Dowd wrote that Biden had been "talking to friends, family and donors about jumping in" to the race.
Dowd also wrote that, before he died, Biden's son, Beau "tried to make his father promise to run, arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values."
Beau Biden, who was always a big supporter of his father's political career, passed away from brain cancer on May 13.
"My sense is that he's getting closer to making a decision and I'm hoping that decision is he will throw his hat into the ring," said Dick Harpootlian, a longtime friend of Biden's and the former chair of the Democratic Party in South Carolina.
"Democrats have not connected with Hillary Clinton or (Vermont Sen.) Bernie Sanders and they're open to another candidate and they're willing to listen. So i don't think it's too late," Harpootlian added.
Biden, 72, would arguably be the most experienced candidate on either side: seven years as vice president brokering key deals with the Senate, where he served for 36 years representing Delaware.
But his past two bids for the presidency were rocky ones.
The first time, in 1988, he dropped out after news reports revealed he plagiarized part of a speech and inflated his academic record.
In 2008, he got just one percent of the vote in Iowa. Clinton got more than 29 percent.
Polls now show she is vulnerable on questions of trust and honesty.
But she still leads Biden in a hypothetical matchup, 55 to 13 percent.
In a statement this weekend, the vice president's spokesperson would only say, "As the Biden family continues to go through this difficult time, the vice president is focused on his family and immersed in his work."