For weeks on Twitter, one of the biggest trending hashtags was #WhereIsJoe, in recognition of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

His profile has been so low that people wondered whether he had a campaign headquarters or a secret hideout. A popular meme making the rounds on social media showed Biden’s photo on a milk carton as if he were a missing child.

Then when he finally tries to poke his head back into the national conversation in a meaningful way, he’s deservedly greeted with a rousing round of indifference.

Biden re-emerged Sunday in friendly territory — the comfy confines of The New York Times’ op-ed page. His column was titled “My Plan to Reopen America After the Coronavirus.”

Was it worth reading? It was barely worth writing. The biggest takeaway from Biden’s piece was that his hindsight is crystal-clear. Here are the highlights of what the “national strategy” should be before America is reopened:

“First, we have to get the number of new cases of the disease down significantly. That means social distancing has to continue and the people on the front lines have to get the supplies and equipment they need. …

“Second, there needs to be widespread, easily available and prompt testing …

“Third, we have to make sure that our hospitals and health care system are ready for flare-ups of the disease that may occur when economic activity expands again.”

Stay tuned for Biden’s plan for peace in the Middle East: Get both sides to agree.

Everybody knows these are the primary actions that have to be accomplished. Indeed, they’re being addressed right now. Biden’s restating of these actions doesn’t make the ideas exclusively his, and doesn’t render them particularly earth-shattering.

“Ultimately, all that’s left for Biden is to say, ‘I would do what Trump is already doing, but I’ll do it better,'” quipped American Thinker’s Andrea Widburg.

Despite that he’s the only Democrat running for president, Biden is still struggling to become the highest-profile Democrat in the country right now. He’s getting routinely lapped in the news cycles by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I think people have forgotten who Biden is,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. “When he does make the occasional appearance he screws it up. Biden is almost yesterday’s man already. All the luster of the primary wins is gone. Trump is the guy who is out there. He’s the one people see. He’s the one in charge. And the fact that he’s out there every day reassures people.”

At a time when Biden’s campaign would be expected to gain steam — after all, he’s the last Democrat standing — instead, he’s continuing to unravel.

“If Joe Biden weren’t such a corrupt, dissolute, politically vicious man, one might feel sorry for him as he simultaneously battles irrelevance and dementia while locked away in his home in Delaware,” Widburg said. “As it is, watching Biden’s public decay is the equivalent of watching someone take Dorian Gray’s picture out of the attic and place it in front of a television camera.”

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(c)2020 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.)

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