Vice President Joe Biden was frank Thursday night on whether he has the energy to run for the White House, and said at this point, he still isn’t sure.
“I will be straightforward with you,” he said in a speech in Atlanta, according to a pool report. “The most relevant factor in my decision is whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run.”
“Unless I can go to my party and the American people and say that I am able to devote my whole heart and my whole soul to this endeavor it would not be appropriate,” Biden said.
“And everybody talks about a lot of other factors: Other people in the race, whether I can raise money and whether I can put together an organization,” he added. “That’s not the factor. The factor is can I do it. Can my family undertake what is an arduous commitment that we’d be proud to undertake in ordinary circumstances?”
“The honest to God answer is I just don’t know,” he said.
Biden indicated the loss of his son Beau is still weighing heavily on him, and that it will still take time for him to cope with that tragedy.
“I know from previous experience after my wife and daughter… There’s no way to put a timetable on that,” he said. “If I can reach that conclusion and we can do it in a fashion that would still make it viable I would not hesitate to do it.”
“But I have to be honest with you and everyone who’s come to me, I can’t look you straight in the eye and say now I know I can do it,” he said.
