CORONAVIRUS: POSTPONE THE NOVEMBER 3RD ELECTION 2020.

ICHEOKU says a lot of campaigning time has been lost to the Chinese Wuhan disease aka Coronavirus by the presidential candidates. They should therefore be compensated for the loss of such valuable time, which was not a fault of theirs. The Coronavirus should be treated as a force majeure, entitling the candidates to an extension of campaign time. 

American people have not heard sufficient information on the candidates' policy positions, on things dear to them, as a result of the sudden cessation of campaigning by the candidates. Information which would have enabled them to properly assess the candidates and determine who is better suited for the office and which one of them would represent their interests best, as president. 

This is the reason America's presidential election campaign season lasts for a long period of time; to enable the candidates have reasonable amount of time to take their messages across to the American people, in various constituencies and so many corners of a very vast country. It is during this period that American voters interact with the candidates, through various forums such as town halls, campaign stops, campaign events and also watch them on television as they continuously interview for the job in question and answer sessions with reporters, debates and other media pressers. 

As American people watch and listen to the candidates, they make informed assessments on their suitability for the office, who represents their values most and who will protect their values best. Without the presidential campaign running its full course, American people will not have a fair assessment of the candidates to enable them make a well considered choice as to who to elect president. Instead, they will be hoodwinked into voting for a candidate who they would otherwise not have voted for were the candidates to be fully assessed. The shortened campaign period caused by the Coronavirus, has made it impossible for the American people to fully assess the candidates, as it has deprived them the much needed time to do so. 

The presidential candidates on the other hand, have not had enough time to market themselves to the American people as being the best qualified and most suitable for the office, because they were forced to suspend their campaigns because of the Coronavirus. Therefore great injustice will be done to them, especially to the candidate who could have ordinarily marketed himself better to the American people, but was shortchanged and denied the opportunity to do so by the intervention of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Electing a candidate by default of what was known about him before the Coronavirus outbreak, without giving the other candidate a full opportunity to make his case to the American people, will be a great disservice to American democracy, especially the electoral system which usually elects the better of the two candidates as president. The opportunity to do an extensive campaign, which allows candidates to penetrate into the hearts and minds of American people, must not be denied the candidates, especially an otherwise would have been preferred candidate but for the short campaign period. What happened was not their fault; they did not cause the Coronavirus and should therefore their campaigns should not be shortchanged as a result. They should be accorded the full opportunity to make their case to the American people by giving them extra months to campaign to make up for the lost time. 

The Coronavirus disease should be treated as an act of God which intervened to distort both the campaign and the election. Nobody anticipated nor foresaw it coming, but now that it has struck, we must adjust things to meet the cruel hand dealt by it, including the November 3rd 2020 presidential election. Elections do not have to be on the first Tuesday in November of an election year certain; although the practice, but it is not inviolably set in stone. It can and should, under the circumstances we are faced with, be adjusted as would in any other onerous intervening event. The killer-virus now ravaging the country should be treated as such impossible to perform circumstance and necessary accommodations made alongside to postpone the coming presidential election. 

If the 2020 summer Olympics in Japan could be postponed because of the Coronavirus pandemic; ditto elections in North Macedonia, Serbia, Poland, London's mayoral and other local elections, Spain's Basque Country and Galicia, Bolivia's presidential election, many States primaries, ICHEOKU says does not see why the November 3rd 2020 America's presidential election cannot and should not be similarly postponed as well. 

The president for example, instead of going to his regularly scheduled sold out campaign events to remind voters why he should be reelected for a second term on November 3rd  2020, has been holed up in the White House tackling the Coronavirus problem. Although he is doing a good job with the task, but the President Donald John Trump we know, would rather be mesmerizing crowds of Trump faithfuls in his usually sold out campaign arenas, rehashing his accomplishments during the last three years plus of his presidency. 

But instead of doing what he likes best, going to these celebratory campaign events to savor the applause and adulation of his supporters, the president is now bogged down in the White House, working tirelessly to protect and defend American people from the onslaught of the Coronavirus. A virus which sucker punched his strongest campaign talking point, the then flourishing but now vanquished economy in comatose. Nobody in his shoes would like the cruel fate which the Coronavirus dealt him, admitted he is powering through it and doing the best anybody could wish for under such a dire unforeseen circumstance. The president's chances at reelection is still strong because the circumstances was not caused by him and American people have seen him working harder than the once hardest working man in America, the late James Brown. 

On the other side is Joe Biden, the putative presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, admitted Bernie Sanders is still hanging in there but the end game is as good as determined, whose campaign has become hamstrung by the Coronavirus as well. Former Vice President Joe Biden cannot go on his usual campaign tours on 'No Malarky Express' bus any more because of the Coronavirus. At his very advanced and frail old age, his susceptibility to the Coronavirus disease is much heightened and he needs to protect himself more carefully. Also, the image of his campaigning for election amidst such a national disaster will cut a picture of an uncaring soul and American people do not like heartless people to be in their White House. A caring Joe from Scranton who rode the Amtrak from Delaware to Washington DC regularly happens to be his strongest suit and he wouldn't want to soil it now. 

ICHEOKU says Joe Biden deserves his full press court on the campaign trail to market himself to the corners of America where he is not necessarily a household name. He should therefore, like the incumbent President Donald John Trump who is seeking a reelection, be compensated for the loss of campaign time. Like the president, Joe Biden also needs his full campaign time but for a different reason, to try and convince American people on why they should replace the incumbent president with him. A tough task to accomplish under normal circumstances as incumbent presidents most times get reelected, but which is now made even tougher by the Coronavirus. American people have seen the president working so hard fighting the Coronavirus and the image of a frail Joe Biden does not augur well in the middle of the fight. Joe Biden, instead of leading the fight, needs to have himself protected from the virus. 

ICHEOKU says this extension of time being canvassed for does not have to be a full calendar year, such as moving the election to next November 9th 2021. No, it could be for few months depending on the agreement of both parties and as would compensate for the lost time. In fact, short of a pattern which was established over the many years since America started conducting presidential elections, there is nothing sacrosanct about the second Tuesday in November of an election year. The two major political parties can agree to defer the election to a later day and Congress can also decide today on when to hold the election, irrespective of the time honored tradition of holding it on the second Tuesday in November of an election year. In essence, any year can become an election year, ditto the month and the day. 

Each time President Donald John Trump is on television talking about the effort his administration is making to find a panacea to the Coronavirus affliction, he is technically campaigning for his reelection. American people are watching and judging his leadership ability and seeing the effort he is making to solve the pandemic and many are satisfied with what he is doing, especially his messaging. This is a huge disadvantage to Joe Biden, who has no such platform nor commands any other huge presence nationwide during this Coronavirus crisis to showcase his managerial skills for assessment. This deficit needs to be addressed and the only workable way to do it is by deferring the election to a much later date and long after a handle has been placed on the Coronavirus. That way, Joe Biden can have the time to play some catch up and of course both candidates will have their full time on the campaign trails. 

The presidential election of November 3rd 2020 should be postponed to such a future date as would be agreeable to the candidates and their political parties and if need be, ratified by the Congress. This will be for just this election and any other future times as an extraordinarily intervening circumstances might force a disruption of an election, thus making it impossible for the candidates to campaign in full. It is not too much to ask for and it is a better alternative to electing a president by default of lack of enough campaign period to fully assess the other candidate for the office. In fairness to both candidates President Donald John Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, this is the right thing to do. America needs to give them the additional campaign time to make up for the lost time due to the Coronavirus. If other countries could do it, why not the United States of America. #DeferTheNovember3rd202Election.