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For those wondering how far Mr. Trump might go down this road, it’s worth taking a look at when he debated Mrs. Clinton. Pressed on allegations of his own sexual misconduct — this was right after the “Access Hollywood” recording was released capturing him making vulgar remarks about groping women — he simply turned the spotlight to Mrs. Clinton’s husband.

“There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women,” he said.

The empathy gap

With more than 200,000 people in the United States dead from the coronavirus pandemic, the suffering that Mr. Biden has endured in his own life — and his ability to empathize with Americans struggling with grief now — is seen by campaign officials as one of the characteristics that most help the former vice president in this unusual year. (For those who don’t know, his first wife and infant daughter died in a car crash nearly 50 years ago. His two sons survived but one of them, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.)

How Mr. Biden demonstrates that empathy — which was such a buzzword during the Democratic convention that Republicans tried to testify to a hidden softer side of Mr. Trump the next week — will be one of the ways he tries to connect with not just the Democratic base but also critical swing voters.

Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster and focus-group guru, said Mr. Biden’s empathy could prove critically important, and called him “a guy who empathizes with everyone.”

“The only analogy I can think of is, Joe Biden would hold a funeral for a squirrel he hit on the highway,” Mr. Luntz said.

He knows firsthand. Mr. Luntz said he ran into Mr. Biden in Iowa in January, not long after the pollster had suffered a stroke, which Mr. Biden had been briefed on. “He gave me a hug and he didn’t let go,” Mr. Luntz said, “and it was really nice.”