What a terrible year to make this argument. The pandemic has put the usual political rallies on hold, so fewer voters will see the candidates in the flesh. The conventions will be largely online. Press aides will shape the news coverage by picking friendly interviewers. Mr. Biden “hasn’t done any Sunday shows since Covid,” Fox News’s Chris Wallace recently said, adding that “we will ask every week.” The debates will be a rare chance for a third party to push Mr. Biden on his plans for tax increases and a Green New Deal.

Also, Mr. Biden would take office at age 78, becoming the oldest President in history on Day 1. Mr. Trump is all but calling him senile, and Mr. Biden’s verbal stumbles and memory lapses were obvious in the Democratic primaries. How about when Mr. Biden mistakenly referred to Britain’s leader as Margaret Thatcher, who resigned in 1990? Or when he boasted of working on the Paris climate deal with Deng Xiaoping, who died in 1997?

The public deserves to see how well Mr. Biden holds up under debate pressure, while hearing his answers to pointed questions about his policy proposals.