Biden his time

No wonder Donald Trump is reportedly looking to find a nickname for his November opponent other than “Sleepy Joe.” At this rate, that dog won’t hunt. Energetic and focused, former Vice President Joe Biden delivered withering criticism Tuesday of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Assailing the president for a meandering “piecemeal” approach, Biden cogently slammed his chronic undermining of public health experts, his failure of leadership on maskwearing and his total botch-job on testing.

Still, some Democrats worry: Beyond prepared speeches, how will Biden fare on his feet in a general election? He wobbled in the Democratic debates.

No sign of that Tuesday. Biden took more than a half-hour of questions, continuing the briefing even after his campaign aides tried closing it down. He charged Trump with “dereliction of duty” on the news that Russians may have paid the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops.

Asked about controversial statues, he rightly distinguished between monuments to Confederates “who were in rebellion, committing treason to keep slavery” — ”they belong in museums” — to tributes to slaveowning Founding Fathers, which need to be “protected” despite their faults.

He nimbly concluded, “I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability with the cognitive capability of” the current president. Neither can we.