The bad news? He was on the phone saying this at around the same time Jay Carney was sonorously warning reporters that “This is not a time for politics.” The good news? As you’ll see below, this wasn’t even in the top three most “interesting” things he said on the trail today. Which part of is more newsworthy, I wonder? The fact that Biden’s thinking about 2016 often enough to have it creep into his half-jokey banter with members of the public? Or the fact that he seems to believe, contra available evidence, that insurance rates post-ObamaCare will go down instead of up? Either way, the guy’s prospects remain marginally higher than that of the Quayle ’00 campaign. Quick check of the Hot Air “Election 2016” Crystal Ball reveals the forecast unchanged: “No way, no chance, no how, unless nobody else runs.”

Like I said, this didn’t even crack the top three today. Number three:

Biden cites Cleveland Plain Dealer … one of the major newspapers "in this state" (Biden's in FL right now)

— Joe Pounder (@PounderFile) October 31, 2012

Number two, a variation on one of Biden’s favorite topics on the stump:

Biden turned to the group of guys, then, according to the pool report, Biden asked one of them, “Are you Indian?”

“American!” the man responded.

“No, I mean first generation,” Biden replied, “with the further explanation of what he was saying being inaudible to the pool.”

And, via the Standard, at number one, Drudge’s pick of the day. Question for politicos per the clip: Does anyone in your “business” actually use the term “the whole load”? Sounds like one of those things that only Joe says but which he thinks everyone says because no one has the heart to pull him aside and explain all the nervous glances when he says it.

Update: Check that. Turns out the “2016” comment isn’t in the top four weirdest things he’s said today.

“All of a sudden, I found out his new best buddy is Putin,” Biden said. “Man, I tell you. It’s amazing.”

Biden said Romney had embraced the idea that “we can work with Russia, we can be very close with Russia.”

It’s unclear what the vice president was referring to. In the last presidential debate. In fact, Romney defended his previous criticisms of Russia in that debate.