Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's strong performance during Tuesday night's Democratic primary debate is not likely to affect Vice President Joe Biden's decision about whether to jump into the 2016 presidential race, a White House spokesman said Wednesday.
Biden has been "quite candid about the fact that the decision that he has to make about a presidential campaign is rooted in a decision about his own presidential campaign, not anybody else's," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
"I don't think there's anybody who is surprised that Secretary Clinton performed well on the debate stage," Earnest observed. "I'm also confident it was not a surprise to either the president or the vice president, both of whom participated in those debates" during the 2008 presidential contest, he said.
"I think that's why the dynamic for his decision hasn't changed," Earnest said. "Because ultimately this is a decision that he has to make based on a bunch of personal considerations, not based on the political standing of anybody else, let alone anybody else in the Democratic field."
Earnest also dismissed the notion that Biden's indecision is hindering other Democratic hopefuls' campaigns.
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