The 2020 US presidential election campaign has already been among the most dramatic and indeed bizarre in the country’s history and it still has more than ten tension-filled weeks to go.
With Donald Trump repeatedly declining to say whether or not he will even accept the result if, as the opinion polls confidently predict, he loses to Joe Biden on November 3, it is fair to say we are in entirely unprecedented territory.
There are many overwhelming reasons to hope that the incumbent’s days in the White House are numbered, and numerous commentators have suggested that Mr Biden’s status as favourite is largely based on the simple fact that he is not Mr Trump
The covid pandemic has inevitably restricted Mr Biden’s public appearances, and his advisers are also clearly familiar with Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous observation that an opponent who is making a mistake should never be interrupted.
There can be no doubt that Mr Trump’s disastrous approach to all stages of the coronavirus crisis is the factor most likely to guarantee his defeat but it is also essential that Mr Biden is able to present himself positively as a credible successor.
Mr Biden is by any standards a limited orator who is regarded as lacking in political charisma and there are obvious concerns about his age.
While Mr Trump, who was 70 on his inauguration day, was the oldest person in US history to assume the presidency, Mr Biden would be 78 if he found himself sworn in next January.
However, what Mr Biden can point to is a distinguished career of public service going back almost 50 years, a solid record of accomplishment in a range of roles, the strength to deal with personal tragedies and the consistent ability to convince the electorate of his merits.
His Irish links will be an afterthought for most US voters, but Mr Biden has always been a staunch supporter of the Good Friday Agreement who has closely associated himself with the analysis offered by successive Dublin governments of the key issues facing post-Brexit Europe.
As he prepared to officially accept the Democratic nomination at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee last night, there are strong grounds for believing that that he has the qualities necessary to end the Trump era and take him all the way to the Oval Office.
