With the coronavirus now paralyzing the 2020 presidential election process, prospective Democratic nominee Joe Biden finds himself in limbo, campaigning from his makeshift home studio in remote Delaware.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump essentially has the field to himself, operating in the spotlight of his White House perch, around-the-clock press coverage and occasional Air Force One junkets.
As a result, Biden is left begging for airtime on TV and radio, and for space on the editorial pages of newspapers around the country.
With no other Democratic candidate contesting Biden for the party nomination, it's time for Democratic leaders, who profess to being behind him, from former President Barack Obama on down, to cut through the artificial thicket.
The Democratic National Committee, through chairman Tom Perez, should immediately provide all prospective convention delegates with mail-in ballots with which to designate Biden the nominee, and the sooner the better.
With Biden getting that clear imprimatur as his party's leader, the nation's news media will more likely treat him as worthy of the sort of coverage Trump gets as president. The Democrats can later go ahead with the usual hoopla of a convention if conditions allow. The Republicans surely will do the same if Trump has his way, which no doubt will be the case.
At the same time, Biden needs to address in detail his plans and programs with which to beat Trump in November, beyond his provocative but unspecific pledge to "beat him like a drum." The former veep has said he intends to appoint a Cabinet that will "look like America" in terms of race, gender and ethnicity, and he should start offering names for a team that will give credibility to his words.
Biden already has committed himself to naming a woman as his running mate and naming the first black woman to the Supreme Court if a vacancy occurs on his watch. Biden's own resume reinforces his considerable experience in foreign relations. Indications of which advisers will have his ear on domestic policy can enhance his appeal to voters uncertain about where he would take the nation.
With health care continuing to be among the matters of deep public concern in this election, Biden continues to back an improved Obamacare over the "Medicare for All" plan advanced by Democratic presidential rivals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both of whom now support him.
Trump and members of his administration continue to seek to "repeal and replace" Obamacare after years of trying to kill it in Congress. That stand gives Biden particular grounds for challenging him beyond the broad Democratic quest to end the disaster of Trump's first term. Trump has tried to get the Supreme Court to declare Obamacare unconstitutional, though it has gradually grown in public appeal among working Americans.
Above all, Biden's strongest issue for defeating the incumbent has emerged in Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus crisis. The president has made a series of incompetent and ill-informed judgments, combined with a lack of empathy toward the tens of thousands of fellow Americans who have died, confirming his unsuitability for the office he will hold for at least eight more months,
The prospects for a Democratic victory in November, not only in regaining the presidency but also in claiming a majority in both houses of Congress, are suddenly brighter than ever in light of Trump's abysmal bungling of the great national health crisis of this generation. Not to mention his personal trashing of the great office he demeans more with each passing day.
The Democratic Party owes Joe Biden, who somehow has revived his campaign after a bumpy road of unexpected detours, the chance to take his case to the voters on something resembling an even playing field between now and November. Allowing the virus crisis to derail the 2020 presidential campaign at this stage would amount to benign neglect of the rights of the electorate to choose between the two party nominees.
