Getty Joe Biden said to be considering one-term presidency 
 
 If Vice President Joe Biden makes the leap into the Democratic presidential race, he could promise that he would serve just one term in the White House, journalist and author Carl Bernstein said Friday. 
 
 “And one thing that I keep hearing about Biden is that if he were to declare and say, because age is such a problem for him if he does, I want to be a one-term president. I want to serve for four years, unite Washington. I’ve dealt with the Republicans in Congress all my public life,” Bernstein told CNN’s “New Day.” 
 
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 “I think there’s a conversation going on to that effect among his aides and friends,” he said. “It could light fire to the current political environment.” 
 
 Bernstein suggested that the vice president stands to benefit the most from the current political environment as Hillary Clinton struggles to stem the tide of the ongoing scandal over her use of a private email server while at the State Department and poll numbers about her honesty and trustworthiness decline. 
 
 “He’s looking at it right now. His people believe he may do it. Some say yes, some say no. But the distrust factor with Hillary Clinton, the whole Trump excitement and bubble that will probably burst gives a great opportunity to Biden to capture the imagination of the press, of this race, of Democrats who don’t want to see Hillary Clinton, who are worried about the distrust factor with her,” Bernstein added. 
 
 The comments follow reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times this week that cite Democratic allies playing up the credibility of a third Biden presidential run. (The former Delaware senator ran in 1988 and 2008.) 
 
 Dick Harpootlian, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, told the Times that Biden did not indicate whether he was going to run during an hourlong conversation. According to the same report, Biden has been calling supporters and directed Harpootlian to get in touch with Mike Donilon, one of Biden’s longtime advisers. 
 
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 Vice President Joe Biden is using part of his vacation in South Carolina this week to sound out friends and family about a presidential bid, as some Democrats press him to enter the race and give the party another option in the face of lingering controversies involving Hillary Clinton. 
 
 From his vacation spot on Kiawah Island, Mr. Biden is giving the strongest signal yet that he is actively considering making a third run at the presidency. He is asking political allies for advice and gauging the strength of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign as he weighs his options, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Biden is expected to announce his decision next month. 
 
 “He’s taking input from a lot of people he cares about and respects,” said James Smith, a South Carolina legislator and Biden supporter who said he has urged the vice president to run. “He knows where I stand. It’s just got to be his decision.” 
 
 Mr. Biden’s aides wouldn’t comment on his potential weighing of a 2016 bid, saying family and work have been the vice president’s priorities since son Beau Biden’s death in May. Kendra Barkoff, Mr. Biden’s press secretary, said that “as the Biden family continues to go through this difficult time, the vice president is focused on his family and immersed in his work. In recent weeks, the vice president has worked on the nuclear deal with Iran, traveled across the country to highlight the administration’s economic priorities, and more.” 
 
 Mrs. Clinton remains the front-runner for the party’s nomination in national polls, yet some party activists are growing anxious because of the expanding probes of her use of a private email server while secretary of state. 
 
 Current Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has fallen behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in a recent poll of New Hampshire voters, while Vice President Joe Biden is considering his own presidential bid. WSJ's Jerry Seib explains why this isn’t surprising. 
 
 “There are Democrats who are concerned about the turmoil swirling around the secretary with the emails and the server, and now the FBI is investigating and congressional hearings are coming up in the fall,” said Steve Shurtleff, the Democratic leader in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and a Biden supporter in the 2008 presidential campaign. 
 
 A Biden candidacy would be a fresh sign that the Democratic Party has yet to fully coalesce behind Mrs. Clinton. In June, 75% of registered Democrats favored Mrs. Clinton in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll; last month, the figure was 59%. The surprising surge of primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also suggests there could be an opening for Mr. Biden. 
 
 He’d have to start from scratch. Mr. Biden has no super PAC to back his candidacy with independent fundraising or a network of paid staff in early voting states. And Mrs. Clinton has already signed up some of the party’s most seasoned pollsters, fundraisers and data analysts. His entry also could prompt Mrs. Clinton’s supporters to rally around her if her potentially historic candidacy is threatened. 
 
 “She’s been working at this a long time and has built a massive operation,” said Brady Quirk-Garvan, chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party in South Carolina. “Even people who like the idea of Joe Biden running would have to sit there and think, ‘Can he build an operation that would be able to defeat Hillary in four to six months?’ That’s much harder to do in this day and age than you would think.” 
 
 Difficult as it might be, the former U.S. senator would come to the race with built-in advantages as an incumbent vice president who has spent decades in politics. Longtime Democratic fundraisers already have said they would be willing to hedge their bets, which could help him raise cash fast. 
 
 Mr. Smith, the South Carolina legislator, said he has provided names of potential supporters to the Biden team, mapping out “what we can do on day one if he makes that decision.” 
 
 Mrs. Clinton calls Mr. Biden a friend and recently said: “We should all just let the vice president be with his family and make whatever decision he believes is right for him. And I will respect whatever that decision is.” Her campaign declined to comment for this article. 
 
 As a candidate, Mr. Biden could peel off some of the mainstream Democratic support Mrs. Clinton is counting on to hold off Mr. Sanders, an independent who has gained enthusiastic support among the party’s liberal wing. Mr. Biden may also attract a broader constituency in a general election, including rust-belt Democrats, Catholics and white, working-class men, with whom he has some cultural affinity. 
 
 For Mrs. Clinton, the path to the party’s nomination is proving more challenging than some predicted when she entered the race in April. She spent two days crisscrossing New Hampshire this week, trumpeting a plan to make college education more affordable and discussing substance-abuse issues. Some Democrats who saw her said they harbor doubts. 
 
 Tom Lonnquist, who attended her town-hall meeting in Manchester, said Mrs. Clinton has the ability to do the job but that the Clintons’ “baggage” is a cause for concern. At the moment, “Bernie’s my plan B,” he said, adding that he “would not be unhappy” if Mr. Biden ran, too. 
 
 After Mrs. Clinton wrapped up her trip, a new poll came out showing Mr. Sanders surging to a lead in New Hampshire, a longtime Clinton family stronghold. Though some Democrats worry that Mr. Sanders is too liberal to win a general election, he is drawing large, enthusiastic crowds with his fiery denunciations of what he calls the “billionaire class” and his calls for more government involvement in health care. 
 
 Meantime, Mrs. Clinton has been unable to put to rest controversies involving foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation and her use of the private email system while at the State Department. On Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign announced she was turning that server over to the Justice Department, after she said a few months back that she wouldn’t relinquish it. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have been looking into the security surrounding Mrs. Clinton’s email system after government watchdogs found at least four of her emails that contained classified information. 
 
 Democrat Peter Tecklenburg, a county auditor in South Carolina, said of the email controversy: “The opposition has an opportunity to drag this thing out until November 2016. It’s not going to end.” 
 
 Mrs. Clinton’s supporters say she will survive the email flap, and they don’t put much stock in a possible Biden candidacy. They point to Mrs. Clinton’s organizational advantages in early-voting states. Mrs. Clinton also has been meeting privately with Democratic leaders in key states to answer questions and ask for their support. 
 
 Kathy Winter, chairwoman of the Osceola County Democrats in Iowa, said she met Mrs. Clinton in Sioux City earlier in the summer. “I think she visited with every person who was at that house party,” Ms. Winter said. 
 
 Kathy Sullivan, a Clinton supporter and former New Hampshire Democratic Party chairwoman, said “people are very fond” of Mr. Biden, “but it’s kind of tough to get in the race right now. The first votes aren’t that far away. It’s hard to get an organization up and running at this point.” 
 
 Write to Peter Nicholas at peter.nicholas@wsj.com and Colleen McCain Nelson at colleen.nelson@wsj.com
– Speculation about Joe Biden entering the 2016 race has been heating up of late, and Politico adds a new wrinkle: The 72-year-old is reportedly considering a run as a one-term president. "One thing that I keep hearing about Biden is that if he were to declare and say, because age is such a problem for him if he does, I want to be a one-term president. I want to serve for four years, unite Washington," journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN. “It could light fire to the current political environment.” Biden is on vacation in South Carolina this week, and the Wall Street Journal reports that he's using the time to sound out supporters. (You can also add Al Gore's name to the rumor mill.)