"And sir, I just want to say I think your experience and your example of suffering and service is something that would be sorely missed in the race."

"Not that there aren't good people on both sides running. But I think we'd all be very happy if you did run. And if you don't, I know that your service to the country is something we should all salute. So thank you so much."

Said Stephen Colbert to Joe Biden on "The Late Show" last night, in a profound and moving interaction between 2 men who have suffered.

“My mom had an expression: What’s the use of being Irish if you don’t know your life is going to break your heart,” [Colbert] told Biden, while Biden—whose first wife and young daughter were killed 43 years ago in an automobile accident that grievously injured his sons Beau and Hunter—pointed out that his interviewer was himself no stranger to devastating tragedy.

When the 51-year-old Colbert was 10—exactly 41 years ago on September 11, two years after the then-30-year-old Biden lost half his family—Colbert’s physician-father and two of his school-age brothers died in a plane crash....

“I marvel at the ability of people who absorb hurt and just get back up,” Biden 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 chimed in: “She had to take care of me.”

But, Colbert continued, he really was the one who had to take care of her. She was shattered. That means that Colbert was to his mother what Hunter and Beau were to Joe Biden, who spoke of how his young sons supported him. I was moved at the realization that these 2 men were — and that point — like a parent and child to each other.

Biden never said he'd run for President and never said he wouldn't. Perhaps that's part of why he came across as so appealing. It did seem that he lacked the emotional wherewithal to run. There were long pauses and broken syntax. But that would be the candidate's presentation — reluctant, senior, suffering, but willing to serve, if we really need him. A couple times during the interview, asked about his suffering, he turned to the audience and wondered about their suffering, which in some cases, he observed, is worse and harder to bear. I chose that quote for the post title for a reason.

ADDED: Something I said a couple weeks ago: "It's very sad that Joe Biden lost his son Beau, but I'm very skeptical about everything Beau-related that's being thrown out in front of us to smooth the way for a presidential campaign.... His 'heart' and 'soul' are 'banged up,' but if he runs, it will be because he's determined that he has what it takes, that there's plenty of emotional fuel, there's fuel because of Beau, because he's worked through this tragedy and come out tougher, more determined than ever and because Beau wanted him to run... he's doing this for Beau! We're supposed to get caught up in this win-one-for-the-Gipper sentimentality. This is political propaganda. However real Joe Biden's pain may be — and I'm sure it is — I'm standing at a cold distance from this emotional politics. I'm more interested in how Hillary feels about it. You know, she has feelings."