Editor’s Note: Jen Psaki, a CNN political commentator, was the White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman during the Obama administration. She is vice president of communications and strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow her at @jrpsaki. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. Read more opinion articles at CNN.
Tonight, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren reminded us why they are both still in the top tier of the primary race, despite the early reports of their disappointing finishes in the Iowa caucuses.
And more importantly, they showed us that a President can have a soul.
They showed heart and humanity. And they showed that the challenges people are facing in this country impact them personally.
Not with lengthy point by point policy proposals – there is a time for those as well. But with raw emotion.
Joe Biden had one of his best moments on the campaign trail to date when a young man with a stutter asked him how he overcame his own.
In response he talked about how he dealt with stuttering growing up, from the influence of his fierce mother to practicing with a flashlight in the front of the mirror. He delivered a powerful message about how to treat people.
“(Mocking) things that people cannot control, is not right. No one has a right … to mock it and make fun of it.”
Quite a contrast to the current occupant of the Oval Office.
This was the Joe Biden who was often running late for events when he was Vice President because he spent so much time shaking hands backstage with local employees and taking an extra question from the kid on the photo line.
This was the Joe Biden with a huge heart and deep empathy for people and the struggles they have gone through, who has remained appealing to a large swath of the electorate despite uneven debate performances.
We saw a hint of someone who felt like he had nothing to lose – and he doesn’t.
For Elizabeth Warren, the reminder of her humanity came during a question about immigration and the border that led her to get visibly choked up. She recounted her own visit to a DHS detention facility where she saw kids and nursing moms fenced powerlessly in enclosures.
“We cannot be a nation that treats people who come to us – people who are desperate, people who are afraid for their lives – and treats them with anything other than humanity.”
She was shaken by it. And she was at her best.
This was the Elizabeth Warren who tirelessly answers questions at town halls about topics ranging from climate change to Iran policy and then spends hours on selfie lines doing pinky swears with little girls.
Running for President is exhausting, relentless and even harder when you don’t win.
So for the candidates to get themselves up and ready for an hour-long televised town hall after having a disappointing performance in Iowa, nevermind a couple of days on the campaign trail in New Hampshire and a trip back to Washington for Senator Warren, was not easy.
Don’t get me wrong. The town hall performances probably won’t move their poll numbers. They both have uphill climbs.
For Biden, he needs to stay ahead of Pete Buttigieg in New Hampshire or Nevada, and he needs to pull off a convincing win in South Carolina. Without all of the above, he won’t be raising enough money to compete. And he needs to show he has the stamina and can generate the enthusiasm needed for the long haul.
For Warren, she needs to beat Bernie Sanders somewhere, whether it is New Hampshire or Nevada. She needs to convince more voters that she is not just a better version of Bernie, but she is capable of appealing to moderate voters in a way that he is not.
Democrats are not going to beat Donald Trump by outmaneuvering him at his own game of anger, distortion and pathological lying.
But the raw emotional reaction to the deep challenges facing so many people in this country that Vice President Biden and Senator Warren showed tonight – and that Mayor Pete Buttigieg has shown when he talks about his own struggle to feel accepted – is what people connect with and ultimately what will help Democrats win in November.