There is no doubt that Joe Biden has been through some terrible personal tragedies in his life. The death of his son Beau in May 2015 from brain cancer was obviously an earth-shattering moment, and now, Biden is releasing a memoir that details the year around that moment.

A first look at the cover for my new book, PROMISE ME, DAD https://t.co/Ce1eY5Bghw pic.twitter.com/QRXipZz0Ef

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 24, 2017

And while I don’t doubt the depth of the pain that Biden has suffered, what is grabbing the media’s attention is the decision he made – and apparently writes about – in October 2015 to not run for the Democratic party nomination. Of course, we now know so much more about the internal machinations of the DNC and how Hillary Clinton’s campaign made sure that she would get that nomination, but at the time, there was a lot of wondering about the Biden wild card.