Joe Biden's Gay Marriage Motive: the 2016 Election

Joe Biden's support for gay marriage may not have been a political "trial balloon" or a typically Bidenesque case of loose lips. "No one knows quite what to make of Joe Biden’s apparent endorsement of same-sex marriage on Sunday," writes Steve Kornacki at Salon. But "if you consider Biden’s gay marriage remarks in the context of his entire 'Meet the Press' interview ... Maybe he was thinking about himself." As in, maybe he was thinking of running for president in 2016.

After all, he did joke about running alongside Hillary Clinton next time around, and added: “I don’t know whether I’m going to run. And Hillary doesn’t know whether she’s going to run.” The gay marriage remark also puts him in sync with Democrats, whose support for gay marriage is at 67% and rising. As Kornacki puts it, "There’s a real risk for Biden and any other nationally ambitious Democrat who hasn’t evolved past Obama of falling too far behind the rest of their party on this issue." (More Joe Biden stories.)