Joe Biden is blowing this campaign in more ways than one

Joe Biden is in a pickle, a serious one.

He’s the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. But Bernie Sanders, his lone remaining primary opponent, won’t quit.

All presidential candidates are pretty much confined to working from home in this stage of a truly historic, disrupted national campaign. Joe’s in his Delaware house. Bernie’s in one of his New England homes.

Alas for them, Donald Trump is at home too — in the White House where throngs of reporters gather daily for temperature-screenings before transmitting the president’s face and varied messages to millions of Americans desperate for coronavirus updates.

So far, 2020 is an updated throwback to the last front-porch presidential campaign exactly 100 years ago. Warren Harding stayed in his Mentor, Ohio, home, letting crowds make a political pilgrimage to him by the thousands all summer and fall. Campaigns were three months then, not three years.

Emphasizing his small-town theme, Harding addressed them from a welcoming front porch, which modern American homes don’t have anymore because of air conditioning. The 1920 cycle produced the largest landslide yet. He and Calvin Coolidge demolished the Democratic ticket of James Cox and someone named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The briefings these days show the president being president — and also, of course, the familiar, combative Donald Trump. Meanwhile from Delaware, Biden’s amateurish campaign has set up a faux studio in his basement so the former vice president can attempt to join the national crisis conversation.

Trouble is, the 77-year-old Biden sometimes seems unaware of his location, asking Iowa voters about Ohio, turning his back to TV cameras, walking out of sight during a town hall.

He also often sounds like he’s on too many meds with rambling, even incoherent statements. And then the teleprompter breaks down just as the man who wants access to the nuclear launch codes was going to explain why he sincerely wants to be president. Turns out, without a script, Biden couldn’t really say.

Here’s what the candidate told the nation the other day when that happened:

“And, uh, and, and in addition to that, uh, and in addition to that, we have to, uh, make sure that we, uh, we are in a position that we are, well, lemme, lemme go to a second thing. I’ve spoken enough on that.”

Teleprompters were invented to mask speakers reciting lines, enabling them to look directly at audiences with utmost fake sincerity. The devices have been around since 1948 and in politics since 1952. So, they’re not a newfangled gimmick to master.

That happened in Biden’s basement with loyal staff during an allegedly choreographed TV appearance. Never mind someday face-to-face confronting strongmen such as Turkey’s Recip Erdogan or Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

No wonder Biden wants to skip the next primary debate against the 78-year-old Sanders, who’s going strong just five months out from a major heart attack.

They are the sad, septuagenarian remnants of two dozen Democratic senators, governors, representatives, billionaires and a spiritual healer.

Of course, Sanders is not really a Democrat. But his well-oiled online campaign and generous grassroots donors continue successful fundraising and slick virtual events with consistent messaging, vowing to fight on and show up at an April debate. With an empty chair for Joe?

Biden now is the de facto head of the world’s second oldest political party. So, where was the leader when Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell were cobbling together an unimaginable $2.2 trillion spending package that a President Biden would have to manage and finance?

Biden was nowhere. He merely endorsed it later.

Speaking of endorsements, Barack Obama is still, perhaps understandably, not backing the man he called the best vice president in history.

In 2008, the rookie Sen. Obama selected Biden as his running mate for the same reason Gov. George W. Bush chose Dick Cheney in 2000. Those political veterans brought Washington gravitas to the ticket.

Biden was a loyal, obedient partner, except when he came out in favor of gay marriage before the boss was ready. Obama appointed Senate veteran Biden point person on several major programs, which pretty much flopped.

Then, Joe Biden completely forgot the Obama-Biden administration’s eight years. He has referred to George W. Bush as the last president.

Many primaries have been delayed into June, postponing Biden’s opportunity to collect the 1,991 delegates necessary to seal a first-ballot win at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee come mid-July, assuming groups of 50,000 are allowed to assemble by then.

Now, as Biden ponders his promise to pick a female running mate, he’s left with cable TV hits and a podcast from a basement bully pulpit criticizing an incumbent president with the podium in the White House briefing room during a national health crisis. While Trump and Sanders basically ignore him.

And the intransigent Sanders shows no signs of facing reality. If this were Obama’s hometown of Chicago, city health officials would condemn Sanders’ three homes as uninhabitable. His cars would be impounded for parking violations. While union pickets and street crews with jackhammers would appear outside every Sanders office and event. Until he quit.

But this is Joe Biden from Wilmington, Delaware. He’s afraid to offend the ascendant far-left wing of the party. Biden needs Bernie’s battalions to stick with him and the down-ballot Democratic Senate and House candidates this fall. So, Biden walks softly and leaves his big stick in the basement.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Joe Biden is blowing this campaign in more ways than one."