Summary

Run, Joe, Run – In this chapter, the author focuses on the question of whether to run for President in the 2015-16 campaign. He writes of how Beau had always thought he should run, and how even though Beau had “lost his fight … he was never defeated” (223). This, the author suggests, was an essential component in his thinking that he could, and should run. There were also, he adds, signs of support from politicians, diplomats, and regular American citizens who saw him as relatable, as competent, and as more of a human being than a politician.

The author writes of meetings he had over the course of the 2015 summer in which assessments of the possibility of election were made, plans for a campaign were discussed, and publicity began to roll out, both positive and negative. There were also, he writes, suggestions that his running would...