“Vice President Joe Biden’s aides in recent days called Democratic donors and supporters to suggest he is more likely than not to enter the 2016 race, and their discussions have shifted toward the timing of an announcement,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“While the Biden team is still debating the best time to jump in, the vice president met Monday with his political advisers and talked about the merits of an early entry that would assure him a place in the Democratic debate scheduled for Oct. 13. They also are honing his campaign message and moving ahead with plans to raise money and hire staff.”

Joe Biden “may have more time to make up his mind about running for president than most people assume,” Politico reports.

“Various deadlines have been floated: End of summer, Oct. 1, the first Democratic debate on Oct. 13, the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson dinner Oct. 24. But none of these is looking like a hard deadline. Neither are any of the cutoff dates for getting his name on state ballots. … It turns out that instead of simply deciding yes or no on a presidential run, Biden may have a third option — make no announcement at all, wait until December (or longer) and hope Clinton gets out of the race or is pushed to the sidelines without him having to get in.”

Meanwhile, National Review quoted Draft Biden super PAC official Josh Alcorn: “I am 100 percent that Joe is in.”

Bloomberg: “The meeting appeared nowhere on his public schedule. It was held in secret at his hotel in Midtown Manhattan and lasted for more than 90 minutes: a private, one-on-one session with one of the most prominent and powerful fundraising stars in the Democratic firmament—a mega-bundler who happens to be, at least for now, publicly committed to Hillary Clinton.”

“According to multiple sources familiar with the planning under way, Bidenworld is now gaming out, and perhaps even leaning towards, a new timetable—with the vice president waiting until late October or early November to join the race.”

First Read: “But as we’ve said before, Biden potentially waiting another month to start raising money limits how credible of a campaign he could mount. Remember, a sitting vice president running for the White House is an espensive endeavor — with his security apparatus, Biden can’t fly coach on Southwest Airlines to Iowa and New Hampshire. If he’s going to run and build the organization that would make him a credible candidate (built for the general), he needs to get in ASAP. “

Colin Delany: “Clinton and Bernie Sanders already sport close to 1.3 million followers apiece on Facebook, and those numbers grow every day. Still, Biden’s real digital challenge would be building an email list. A social following can explode overnight — Sanders surged past Clinton online — but list-building takes time.”

“As we’ve seen again and again, email remains a candidate’s most important online tool for fundraising and mobilization. Yes, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and the like steal the media spotlight, in part because reporters can actually see the messages going out.”

Politico: “People around Joe Biden are increasingly convinced he’ll run for president — and Thursday, he took the next step forward, using his appearance at a union rally here to unveil what for all intents and purposes would be his 2016 stump speech.”

“In and around the vice president’s office, planning and outreach for the expected run is intensely underway, creating an energy that looks to those close to it like a campaign taking shape. They’re talking to donors, they’re connecting with old supporters, they’re starting to think about potential campaign staff hires, according to people familiar with the activity.”

“Sometimes it just overwhelms you.”

— Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Rick Klein: “It was one of many lines that it was virtually impossible to imagine any other politician, much less a potential presidential candidate, uttering on national television. In its raw emotion and honesty, the interview displayed what is undeniably compelling about Biden, his life story, his passions, and his motivations. It also suggested strongly a man who just isn’t able to bring himself to run for president, not at this time and under these circumstances. Yet somehow that all seemed secondary for the moment.”

Vice President Joe Biden “is road-testing his campaign message ahead of a possible run for the White House,” The Hill reports.

“At a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, Biden showed off his working-class roots while calling for policies to address income inequality. Before that, during a two-day swing through Florida, Biden flaunted his foreign policy chops and mingled with party donors. On Thursday, Biden will appear on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ where his off-the-cuff style, which has endeared him to many Democrats, will be on display.”

“You have to talk to my wife about that. I’ve got to talk to my wife about that.”

— Vice President Biden, quoted by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in response to shouted calls for him to run for president.

“Joe Biden thinks he can win South Carolina. And that victory, he believes, would hurtle his campaign into a rally toward the Democratic nomination no matter who has already taken Iowa and New Hampshire,” Politico reports.

“Like so much of the musing inside the Biden 2016 exploration, it’s an assumption based on a wish based on a feeling. They’ve done no polls. They’ve raised no money. They’ve got no organization. And yet, top Democrats in the state are so unnerved by Hillary Clinton’s inability to get beyond her email controversy that they say Biden’s on-a-wing-and-a-prayer strategy isn’t hopeless.”

First Read: “But as we’ve said before, if Biden wants to win, he needs to announce ASAP, because he has to start raising the $50 million to $100 million needed to be competitive in the Democratic primary — as well as to prepare to fight back against the $1 billion that will be spent by GOP groups to topple the eventual Democratic nominee. So if Biden is truly serious about winning, he’s got to get into the race in the next couple of weeks. The longer he waits, though, the more this becomes about not wanting to close the door on his political career and his lifelong dream: the presidency.”

“The question of whether Vice President Joe Biden will mount a bid for the presidency could remain unsettled well into the fall, later than he had envisioned,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In Mr. Biden’s first detailed public remarks on his 2016 plans, delivered Thursday night, he said the ‘most relevant factor’ in his consideration is his emotional health and that of his family, following the death of his son Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer in May at age 46.”

Said Biden: “There’s no way to put a timetable on that.”

First Read: “The truest signals of Biden’s 2016 plans are 1) setting up some sort of fundraising committee, and 2) hiring staff who could work on a campaign. And after a month of intense speculation about Biden’s White House intentions, he still has done neither. Remember, having a sitting vice president traveling to Iowa or New Hampshire for campaign events would cost tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of dollars per day. So Biden can’t run on the cheap.”

“As his political future remains the subject of intense speculation, Vice President Joe Biden will end a summer of grief and contemplation on Wednesday by traveling to South Florida, one of the richest grounds for raising campaign cash,” the New York Times reports.

“His office and his advisers have been silent about whether the trip is intended to pave the way for a presidential run. There are nonpresidential explanations for everything on his schedule, which includes a speech at Miami Dade College, a $10,000-a-couple fund-raising dinner to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a meeting on Thursday at a Jewish community center to discuss the Iran nuclear deal.”

Politico: The man plotting Biden 2016

Rick Klein: “It’s a version of speed dating, except one party is already sort of engaged. And it wouldn’t take Ashley Madison to find another just-maybe willing prospect outside the room. The Democratic National Committee is converging in Minneapolis just in time to take some private frustrations over Hillary Clinton’s candidacy public. But as Clinton herself and her announced rivals zip through the room, making condensed versions of their pitches, all eyes of course remain on Vice President Joe Biden and a team that’s actively drumming up interest in that third Biden run.”

“The challenge for them is to be clear about the circumstances: disappointment and even anger at Camp Clinton is not necessarily the same as a groundswell for the vice president. Biden insiders think they’ve gotten President Obama’s go-ahead this week, yet that’s not an endorsement. It’s also not a replacement for the grassroots eruption Biden would have to position himself to tap into if a late-starting candidacy will go anywhere. Clinton may well be vulnerable, and those in the room in Minneapolis may want her to face a more substantial challenge. That’s not the same, though, as wanting to break up with Clinton in favor of Biden.”

Former Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), “a fixture in Iowa Democratic politics for over four decades, discouraged Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday from entering the presidential race, suggesting that Hillary Rodham Clinton, if elected, could name him to a top diplomatic post instead,” the New York Times reports.

Vice President Joe Biden told DNC members “that he was uncertain if his family had the ’emotional fuel’ for another presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports.

Were he to run, he would “have to be able to commit to all of you that I would be able to give it my whole heart and my whole soul,” he said, “and right now, both are pretty well banged up.”

He added: “I’m not trying to skirt your question. That’s the truth of the matter, but believe me, I’ve given this a lot of thought and dealing internally with the family on how we do this.”

First Read: “Folks, this isn’t a way to stoke the 2016 fire. Indeed, it’s more throwing water on it. It’s as if Biden was trying to tell the political world: calm down.”