One silver lining during our national coronavirus crisis is that political campaigning has taken a pause, at least as far as public events and the media coverage of those events goes. Candidates have to scramble to find ways of staying relevant now and that includes the Democrat frontrunner for the presidential nomination – Joe Biden.

It is a delicate balance that the former vice-president is navigating right now. He wants to be seen and heard yet there is only one president at a time and it ain’t him. At first, Biden was nowhere to be found. Blessedly, it was radio silence from good old Joe. Now though, we are further into what looks like an extended period of time sheltering in our own homes and the old guy has to do something for attention. To put it kindly, his previous attempts of using shadow coronavirus briefings and doing a virtual town hall using Zoom as a means of communication with his supporters and those he hopes will support him have fallen short.

How embarrassing for Biden – he’s a veteran swamp creature of 40 years in Washington and yet he is unable to get it together enough to get out his messages in a competent, articulate way. On a good day, Biden struggles to be articulate but now it is particularly painful to watch. CNN tried to come to his rescue with a town hall after Biden’s disastrous attempts to communicate from his basement at home. He offered criticisms of President Trump’s handling of the crisis, of course, and little in the way of what he would actually do other than a three-month freeze on rent payments and for the government to pick up the tab on all health care expenses of the coronavirus. Though he says he receives daily briefings on the medical and economic prices of the pandemic, Slow Joe must have dozed off. Both of those issues have been regularly addressed by the president, his administration, and the coronavirus task force.

So, the point is, Joe Biden is irrelevant right now. He’s just another voice in a chorus of talking heads and pundits on the sidelines. He can criticize what he perceives as a slow response initially, though that isn’t as legitimate of criticism the further out we go in this crisis, as we are discovering. Trump has risen to the occasion and that is a bad thing for Biden’s hopes of winning in November. For example, you may remember that Biden was one of those who criticized Trump when he closed air traffic from China at the end of January. Biden joined the chorus of Trump’s opponents and described that action as racist and xenophobic. It proved to be the single biggest detriment to the spread of the virus to date. This is where I remind you that Joe Biden has historically been wrong on big decisions throughout his very long time in office.

A super PAC has formed to ride to Joe’s rescue. It is focused on the November election and the contest between President Trump and Joe Biden.

Unite the Country is one of several Democratic groups to release ads hitting President Trump on the handling of the global health crisis.

Earlier this week, the group released its first national television ad focused solely on Trump. The thirty-second TV ad criticizes his response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a narrator in the ad saying, “Crisis comes to every president. This one failed.”

Lily Adams has been hired by Unite the Country as its chief communications officer and Jennifer Clyburn Reed, daughter of Rep. Jim Clyburn, to its board of directors. You remember Daddy Clyburn, right? He single-handedly delivered a victory for Biden in South Carolina’s Democrat primary at the eleventh hour. Adams is a former aide to Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Just a personal opinion here but I am unaware that either Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris are known for top-notch communication, aides or not.

But, the best news for all of us is the announcement of a podcast. Yes, that’s right – Joe Biden is beginning a podcast. This will offer something for everyone, without a doubt. His supporters will be happy to listen and the rest of us will be entertained by what will no doubt be an abundance of flubs, brain freezes, and blunders – unless he doesn’t do it live and uses a skilled editor. Given his past attempts in the virtual world, though, do we think he has skilled technology advisers working in his campaign? That’s a legit question.

Biden’s podcast is called “Here’s the Deal” and the first one was recorded last Tuesday. It is being launched today. The first episode is 20 minutes long. Ron Klain is Biden’s first guest and that will be no surprise to listeners if you’ve seen how Biden’s campaign has publicized that Klain is the former Obama Ebola czar and former chief of staff to Biden when he was vice-president. If Biden wins in November, it’s safe to say that Klain will find himself gainfully employed at the White House again in some capacity. Klain has starred in a video for the Biden campaign already on the pandemic.

“I think it’s important for people to know that you’re talking to almost, every day, top economists about what to do about this,” Klain told Biden on the podcast. “You’re talking to Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill and making the point that it’s important that as we fight this economic crisis, we focus on people and families, not corporations.”

“Bingo,” Biden responds.

Besides trying to provide “clarity” on important issues, the podcast promises to bring “the heart, compassion and wisdom” of Biden to Americans as the campaign contrasts President Donald Trump’s crisis-management leadership to that of the former vice president.

“Why am I doing this?,” Biden asks listeners. “So we can keep talking to each other. We can’t hold rallies anymore, but we’re not gathering in big public spaces. We’re living in the new normal, but I want you to know that I’m with you and I’m on your side and we’re going to get through this together as a country.”

I haven’t listened to Biden’s podcast yet. I will, though, out of curiosity. Here’s a tweet from the GOP Rapid Response Director that points out that Biden is still not publicly acknowledging his sixth grandchild. Thanks, Hunter. You can hear a snippet of how Grandpa Joe visits with a couple of them now as he shelters at home.

Oh no.

Joe Biden did it again.

He got the number of grandkids he has WRONG.

"Here's the Deal," Joe Biden has 6 grandkids, not 5.

Biden is not off to a great start with his podcast. https://t.co/IhStEt8RDA pic.twitter.com/EHnhbmaTkP

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 30, 2020