Grieving Joe Biden Focuses on the Job He Has Now, Not the Next One

There were talks this year that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., at the National Defense University in Washington in April, could be preparing to run for president. Friends now say that he is focusing on his family.CreditZach Gibson/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Hosting a rockfish and crab lunch for a visiting Vietnamese leader, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. seemed subdued as he talked of a painful history and a promising future between the United States and Vietnam. He ad-libbed some remarks, made a few mild jokes and stared straight ahead when his guest spoke.

Six weeks after the death of his elder son, Mr. Biden has thrown himself back into his work, meeting with foreign leaders, giving speeches and even cheering on the women’s national soccer team in its victory over Japan in the World Cup. Unsurprisingly, in the shadow of tragedy, he is not his typically ebullient self. But by all accounts he is feeling his way forward and trying to figure out what comes next.

Even without the heartbreak of loss, this was bound to be a crossroads moment for a vice president who has spent four decades in Washington only to find an uncertain path ahead. He has not ruled out running for president again, and some friends are nudging him to, even if the political math does not seem to favor it. But he has good days and bad days, his mind never far from his late son, Beau Biden, and his staff is not planning further than two weeks ahead.

“This is not a guy who is going to go easily,” said former Senator Ted Kaufman, a longtime confidant appointed to fill Mr. Biden’s seat representing Delaware in the Senate after the 2008 election elevated him to the vice presidency. “Whatever he’s doing, he’s going to stay involved. He’s not looking to retire, like me. He’s pretty clearly in the ‘I’m going to do everything I can to use what I’ve learned to be involved.’ ”

Whether that means another campaign remains unclear. Mr. Biden, 72, has 18 months left in his current job, and advisers said he felt a duty to its responsibilities. It has also been therapeutic to get back to the White House and focus on issues like clean energy and foreign policy. Among his assignments are the dicey challenges of Ukraine and Iraq. And just over the horizon is another potential budget battle.

The work helps, say friends, advisers and White House officials. And recent White House victories have not hurt. For Mr. Biden, the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage proved sweet vindication, one he celebrated Thursday at an event in New York sponsored by the advocacy group Freedom to Marry.

While gay rights activists credit him for speaking out for same-sex marriage before President Obama did, Mr. Biden’s most pivotal role came in 1987 when, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he led thefight to block confirmation of Robert H. Bork, the conservative jurist, to the Supreme Court. Eventually confirmed to that seat instead was Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the swing vote who wrote the court’s 5-to-4 marriage decision.

The New York event was just part of a busy schedule assembled for Mr. Biden. Since returning to work, he has met with the prime minister of Ukraine, the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, the president of Brazil, the president of Honduras, the prime minister of Canada and the prime minister of Mongolia, while also making calls to other world leaders. On Monday, he will participate in the United States-Ukraine Business Forum and later give a speech on India at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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