By Thomas McKinless

When asked if Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would be the ideal candidate to advance the Obama administration’s policies after 2016, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday he wouldn’t anticipate Biden following directly in Obama’s footsteps should he decide to run for president. Earnest posited that in most presidential races, the candidates must differentiate themselves from the incumbent — and said Biden would be no exception. “The fact is,” Earnest said, “no matter how good the first two terms have been, nobody’s going to run a successful campaign predicated on essentially a third term.”