Biden appears to downplay 2016 presidential speculation

Vice President Biden looked Friday to quash speculation that he would be making a White House run in 2016, telling a voter who asked if he's planning to run for president that he was "going to stick as vice president."

The exchange came just days after Biden told the Republican brother of a supporter that the success of Obama administration policies would convince him to "vote for me in 2016."

At the stop Friday in Beloit, Wis., an elderly man asked Biden if he "was going to run for president this time?"

"Oh no, I am going to stick as vice president," Biden said, leaving it unclear whether he was referring to 2012 or an eventual 2016 bid.

But Biden seemed to acknowledge his earlier comment — and the subsequent media coverage — by then pointing to the collected press corps.

"Y'all hear that, press?" Biden said.

Biden has repeatedly sought his party's presidential nomination, most recently in 2008, when then-Sen. Barack Obama ended up the choice of Democratic voters. And during his campaign stop in Sarasota, Fla., on Monday, he seemed to be entertaining again the idea of a presidential run.

Biden was put on the phone with the Republican brother of a supporter there who apparently engaged the vice president in a debate over the merits of the president's signature healthcare law.

"Look, I'm not trying to talk you into voting for me, I just wanted to say hi to you," Biden said. "And after it's all over when your insurance rates go down, then you'll vote for me in 2016. I'll talk to you later."

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