Biden his time

Surprising many in the Democratic Party, the former vice president of the United States has run a consistent campaign that has maintained a lead over Donald Trump in national and swing-state polling for at least a year. Tonight’s debate could help Biden win over the handful of Americans yet undecided on whom to vote for come Nov. 3.

The smartest thing that Biden can do tonight is to continue doing what he’s already doing.

He’s wisely identified Trump’s most consistent gambit — distracting opponents and media alike with the reality-show type drama in which he revels — and refused to be drawn into it. Rather than engaging on every crazy statement or scandal, Biden has stayed focused on the health and economic upheaval the coronavirus has wrought, and Trump’s unsteady and inept leadership during the pandemic.

Countless other decisions that Trump has made have damaged America domestically and internationally — tax cuts for the wealthy, trade war, immigration, race-baiting. Biden should have sharp arrows in his quiver, because this election is mostly a referendum on the incumbent’s character and competence.

But the president’s abysmal failure to control COVID, even as a second wave appears to be restarting, is a cataclysm still taking lives.

To add insult to injury, the Trump administration opted once more to try to undermine the Affordable Care Act by backing a suit before the Supreme Court to overturn the law, which would shred its protections of people with preexisting conditions — and during a pandemic that could leave millions with some form of preexisting condition, no less.

As ignorant, deceitful, impulsive, divisive, vicious and corrupt as this president has been, his mishandling of one issue has dragged this nation to a lowpoint. Solid and steady, Biden must hold him to account.