Irish American Vice President Joe Biden appears to be preparing a bid for a 2016 Democratic nomination, if his appearance at an Iowa state fund-raiser on Sunday is anything to go by, and it usually is.

Iowa is usually first to feel the love from interested nominees and so rumors swirled when Biden  turned up at the annual Tom Harkin Steak Fry in the state whose caucuses make up the country's first voting contest of the presidential campaigns.

'It’s amazing,' Biden told the crowd. 'When you come to speak at the Steak Fry, a whole bunch of people seem to take notice. I don’t know why the hell that is.'

If he declares his candidacy Vice President Biden, 70, would join a field that is expected to include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the expected front-runner.

Tom Harkin, the senior senator from Iowa, told the press that if he throws his hat in the ring Biden could find a supportive environment in the Hawkeye State.

He refrained from predicting which of the candidates would come out on top, though.

'They’re both well-liked in Iowa,' Harkin said. 'There’s no doubt about that. But you know there’s a lot of time between now and 2015 when things really start to move.'

Biden praised Obama's leadership, defending his handling of the economy and the crisis over Syria's chemical weapons.

Obama, said Biden, reduced the national debt by $2.5 trillion “and in the process we've created 2.5 million new jobs. But folks, there's a lot more we have to do.”

On Sunday President Obama refused to be drawn into discussion of his potential successor in an interview broadcast on Sunday on ABC's This Week.

“What I would say to folks out there is we are tremendously lucky to have an incredible former secretary of state who couldn't have served me better, and an incredible vice president who couldn't be serving me better,' he said.