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.  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.

It doesn't help Biden when his campaign churns out bland, meaningless bits of political pabulum that are meant to read as profound insights into public policy during a challenging time in America.  The latest example is an opinion piece in the New York Times that purports to be Biden's "plan to safely reopen America."  (This link is to the same article at MSN if the Times piece is behind a paywall.)

I use the word "purports" because there's nothing in the writing that echoes Biden's actual voice.  It's very much the work of a staffer and not a very bright one at that.  Still, it has Biden's name attached to it and the phrase "my plan," so we'll pretend he wrote it.

File photo by Gage Skidmore.

Here is Biden's brilliant plan, distilled, paragraph by paragraph, to its essence:

1. Attack Trump.
2. Work on getting a vaccine for COVID-19.
3. Use social distancing to stop COVID-19's spread.
4. Use the Defense Production Act.
5. Attack Trump.
6. Have more testing.
7. Attack Trump.
8. Work on producing anti-body tests.
9. Attack Trump.
10. Prepare hospitals for future COVID-19 flare-ups.
11. Re-open businesses, while expecting a gradual return to normal.
12. Talk to leaders in the private sector about ways for businesses to keep their employees safe.
13. Attack Trump.
14. Have OSHA work on ways to keep employees safe.
15. Focus on the racism inherent in COVID-19's spread.
16. Work on a vaccine.
17. Attack Trump.
18. It's all Trump's fault.
19. I will do better.

Once stripped of the few fancy words and phrases padding the above ideas, it's apparent that Biden (or his fine young ghostwriter) is simply parroting initiatives that are already in play under the Trump administration.  Ultimately, all that's left for Biden is to say, "I would do what Trump is already doing, but I'll do it better."

Biden's time as a senator and a vice president, however, gives no indication that he has any management or executive skills.  It's ludicrous to believe that Biden, who's done nothing substantive over his career other than echo whatever line his party is taking, is capable of restoring America's economy after this confidence-shaking experience..