http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/08/joe_biden_s_emotional_appeal_and_authenticity_won_t_win_the_white_house.html

A discussion about whether Vice President Joe Biden should run for president gets deep pretty fast. Any talk about ambition, a life’s purpose, and the end of a career must take into account of all the woe Biden has had to face in his life. At age 30, a few weeks after he was elected to the Senate, his wife and 1-year-old daughter died in a car accident. Eighteen days later, he took the oath of office standing at his 3-year-old son Beau’s hospital bedside, where he was being treated for injuries sustained in the crash. In 1988 Biden had two surgeries to address the effects of cranial aneurysms with only a 50 percent chance of success. Two months ago, he buried his 46-year-old son, Beau, the victim of brain cancer. It is supposed to be the other way around. Sons are supposed to bury their fathers.