Many Democrats also expected Larry Grisolano, another veteran of Mr. Obama’s campaigns, to take a senior role in Mr. Biden’s organization, but earlier this year Mr. Grisolano declined.
It is not clear how strongly Mr. Biden might be able to rely on other members of Mr. Obama’s political network, many of whom have gravitated toward newer candidates like Ms. Harris and former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas. (Mr. Obama himself has been tight-lipped during his former running mate’s difficult week; a spokesman for the former president declined to comment while noting that Mr. Obama had praised Mr. Biden warmly in recent months.)
And Mr. Biden has done little self-vetting of his legislative record because he has not hired a research director. His aides have contacted at least two Democratic officials, James Singer and Helen Smith, about research jobs, but Mr. Singer went to work for Ms. Harris and Ms. Smith is planning to work on a House race.
Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in 2008, said Mr. Biden had already sacrificed some of his political strength by waiting so long. She said Mr. Biden remained formidable, but urged him to enter the race soon and initiate a “bigger, more thoughtful conversation about how men of power interact with women with not so much power.”
“I think he can look at this as an opportunity, and I wish he would,” Ms. Solis Doyle said.
As he demonstrated on Friday with his joking references to giving hugs and his impromptu press availability, there is only so much his aides can do to contain Mr. Biden. His reliance on his own instincts has been legendary for decades, since his turbulent, 1988 campaign chronicled in the classic political book “What It Takes.”
But it’s unclear whether Mr. Biden’s instincts will be enough to navigate his party’s shifting center of gravity. After declaring at a Democratic fund-raising dinner in Delaware last month that he would be “the most progressive candidate” in the race, Mr. Biden clarified on Friday that he meant his positions on issues like race and L.G.B.T. rights — not, as he put it, on the question: “Are you a socialist?”
Quieting aides who sought to cut short his session with reporters, he argued that the “party has not moved” and said that “the vast majority of the members of the Democratic Party are still basically liberal to moderate Democrats in the traditional sense.”
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