President Obama Punts on Biden Question, Calls Other Candidates 'Very Fine People'

— -- President Obama today attempted to steer away from a question about whether Vice President Joe Biden should pursue a presidential run, saying Biden will have to decide whether such a move would “make sense.”

"The vice president, like every other candidate, makes their own decisions," Obama said in a news conference. "They’ll have to figure out whether it makes sense to them."

Growing speculation about whether Biden will enter the race has reached a boiling point following the first Democratic debate Tuesday, which Obama commented on for the first time publicly.

Obama said that while he was "clicking back and forth" between playoff baseball games and the debate, he was "very impressed with all" the candidates on the stage.

“Those are all some very fine people,” he said. “Although there are some very real difference among the candidates, and with each candidate some differences with my administration, overall we very much share a vision for an economy that works for everybody and effective pursuit of national security through tools at our disposal.”

Later in the news conference, Obama signaled to reporters a general reluctance to comment on any 2016 campaign issues after being questioned about Hillary Clinton’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal recently announced by the administration.

“Here’s a general proposition over the course of a long campaign: I probably won’t be commenting on every single utterance or decision that the candidates make,” Obama said. “I think it is necessary and proper that the candidates run on their own vision and their own platform.”