Editor's Note: (David Gergen has been a White House adviser to four presidents and is a senior political analyst at CNN. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a professor of public service at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he founded the Center for Public Leadership. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.)
(CNN) For the past few months, as Joe Biden has been working primarily from his Delaware basement, political commentators have wondered whether his managers have been trying to hide him. Can he still address the public without a gaffe, they have asked? Is he tough enough? Can he go toe-to-toe with the boisterous rhetoric of President Donald Trump?
The Biden who came out of the basement on Tuesday to deliver a speech on race didn't erase all those questions. But his speech did remind us what he offers that the other guy doesn't -- and that is a man whose inner life is a source of enormous, under-appreciated strength.
The psychologist Martin Seligman and colleagues have done considerable research on the importance of crucibles in people's lives. A crucible is generally seen as a terrible, external shock that can strike out of the blue and transform a person's life. Seligman has found that humans typically have one of three reactions to such a shock: some people spiral down into hopelessness; a majority suffer for months but then are resilient enough to snap back; and the most fortunate not only snap back but actually grow from the experience.
To cite a political example, polio swept over a 39-year-old Franklin Roosevelt in a single night and, despite repeated attempts, he could never walk again. But after initial bouts of depression, he began a comeback and eventually transformed himself. He had been rather self-interested and vapid in his early days, but, in part, through his suffering, he changed, becoming compassionate and caring. Close advisers thought had it not been for polio, he may not have become president -- and certainly not the towering figure who emerged during the Great Depression and World War II years.
Similarly, Biden has suffered repeated crucibles: his adult life was bookended by two unthinkable tragedies. In 1972, weeks after he was elected to the Senate, an auto accident killed his wife Neilia and small daughter Naomi, and injured his two sons, Beau and Hunter. Over four decades later, in 2015, he buried his beloved older son, Beau, after his battle with brain cancer.
I never knew Biden before that first crucible but watching him since, I can clearly see the scars of year after year of personal grief. To his credit, he somehow reached within himself, found resilience and eventually committed his life to a moral purpose -- making the world a little better. His strong Catholic faith and his working class roots surely steadied him.
For many, these tragedies would be too painful to withstand. For Biden, they shaped him into the man of decency and compassion we see today. On Tuesday, that decency was on full display as he addressed a nation mourning the loss of George Floyd and countless other victims of racial injustice.
He empathized with generations of suffering experienced by communities of color while calling on his fellow Americans to emerge stronger from this moment -- just as he has from his own crucibles. He related their grief to his own in saying: "There are still moments when the pain is so great it feels no different from the day (Beau) died. But I also know that the best way to bear loss and pain is to turn that anger and anguish into purpose."
Biden does not project superficial toughness the way Trump does, but Trump doesn't come close to having the inner strength of Biden. Having worked for Richard Nixon in the White House years ago, I can tell you that ultimately it is the inner character of a president that serves the country well. Show me a leader who is hollow inside, as Trump seems to be, and I will show you a leader who will ultimately fail.
With five months of volatile, ugly campaigning still ahead, Trump certainly has a chance to win reelection. But, at the moment, it is the mensch who looks stronger.