Joe, Don't Run for President! But....

But please keep inspiring us. Here are some quotes from Joe Biden's appearance on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert last night (taken from the Washington Post):

Speaking of how he tends to get emotional about the recent death of his son Beau, who urged him to run for president, Joe said, "It's a little embarrassing. So many people who have losses as severe or maybe worse than mine and don't have the support I have." He added later, "The loss is serious and it's consequential, but there are so many other people going through this."

The Post reports:

Colbert asked Biden, a devout Catholic, about his faith, and the vice president said he has taken solace in being able to attend Mass and feel, in the crowd at church, a sense of being alone with his thoughts and emotions. He  said that his wife, Jill, tapes notes to the bathroom mirror, including one from Kierkegaard, the philosopher, which said: "Faith sees best in the dark."

He related an expression from his mother that "as long as you are alive you have an obligation to strive, and you're not dead until you see the face of God."

"No one owes you anything," Biden said. "You gotta get up. And I feel like I was letting down Beau, letting down my parents, letting down my family, if I didn't just get up."

The vice president empathized with Colbert, whose own father and two brothers were killed in an airplane crash.

"I marvel at the ability of people who absorb hurt and just get back up," he said. "You're one of them, old buddy. Losing your dad when you're a kid. It's like asking what made your mother do it every day?"

Colbert interjected: "She had to take care of me."

Biden replied, "I imagine that would be a hell of a job."

We all need you, Joe Biden, but not as president of the U.S. More for your inspiration and compassion, neither of which you'll have much chance to display in the White House.