If you’re a Netflix addict, then you’re likely familiar with the antics of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, the star of the docuseries "Tiger King," which chronicles the life and times of the former Oklahoma zookeeper, singer and presidential and gubernatorial candidate currently in prison for taking part in a murder-for-hire plot.

And if you’re a political addict, you’re definitely familiar with the comings and goings of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., a.k.a. Amtrak Joe (or, in Trumpspeak, “Sleepy Joe”), the Democrats’ presidential nominee-in-waiting currently in a self-imposed prison in Wilmington, Del., where Biden’s campaign turned his home’s basement into a functioning media studio from which the candidate can broadcast to the outside world.

The difference between the two Joe’s? Mr. Exotic is having his Warholian 15 minutes of fame. In addition to the Netflix series, he’s filed a $94 million lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and wants a presidential pardon. The rapper Cardi B has vowed to set up a GoFundMe account on his behalf.

Mr. Biden, on the other hand, struggles for attention. Last week, he tried a scripted speech, a videoconference with reporters and an hour-long CNN townhall -- dressed in a suit and tie, making Biden the rare business-clad shut-in – all in hopes of interjecting himself into a news cycle dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To the extent that Biden received attention, it wasn’t always what his campaign desired. At one point in his March 23 offering, the candidate seemingly lost his train of thought. During an interview the following day, CNN’s Jake Tapper saw the need to teach the candidate the nuance of coughing into sleeves rather than hands.

The purpose of this “Wayne’s World”-like basement-based infotainment? It’s three-fold. Biden wants to show he’s still politically relevant at a time when President Trump makes the most of a daily White House bully pulpit. Biden also needs to keep cash rolling into his campaign (all the more difficult as financial portfolios suffer). And there’s the chronic problem of an impossible-to-please progressive base, which sees the crisis as an excuse to bring the democratic socialist dream to life.

As such, it makes Biden the Man of La Mancha of this upturned election, a man on an unrealistic quest. Joe Exotic, meet Joe Quixotic. What Biden discovered the hard way, last week, was the challenge of message discipline as both a presidential challenger and a non-officeholder without a part to play in governmental strategies – ironic in that Biden, the consummate Washington insider, now finds himself on the outside of The Swamp looking in.

Biden, in his Teleprompter address, didn’t blame Trump for causing the pandemic, but he refused to give any praise lest he face a Democratic backlash. He did applaud several governors – three of them Republicans – for their hard work. Two days later, in his press videoconference, Biden laid into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which came across as a not-so-subtle grab at 29 electoral votes that went Trump’s way in 2016.

Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign must figure what to do with a candidate who is neither free to move about the country nor capable of drawing audiences and crowds thanks to various states’ social-distancing edicts.

Here’s a suggestion: rather that harsh words and empty partisan calories, Biden’s campaign should consider kind deeds for now. Each day, the former vice president should perform at least one of act of comfort or charity to demonstrate that he shares in the public’s struggles – oddly enough, something Biden almost stumbled into during his CNN townhall when he was on the verge of offering his cell phone number to families of coronavirus victims.

That moment was Biden at his best – a candidate in sync with a purported brand of a soothing, calming alternative to a blustering Republican incumbent. “I’ve lost a couple children, I’ve lost a wife,” Biden began. “And it is incredibly difficult to go through, and it’s harder to go through when you haven’t had an opportunity to be with the person when they’re dying.”

Noting that he was present on the separate occasions when his mother, father and son died, Biden added that “with my deceased wife, I was not able to do that.” Growing more emotional, Biden said that one of the crueler aspects of the coronavirus is that victims are separated from their loved ones. “The human connection is so, so profoundly important,” Biden lamented. “And when you don’t have it, you’ve got to get help.”

At which point, Biden almost handed out his digits. “You can contact my campaign. I’m happy to try to try to talk to you. Not that I’m an expert, but just having been there. I’m so sorry for you.”

That’s what Biden’s campaign should consider – every day in April, have the candidate talk to victims’ families (a Zoom basic user can host meetings with up to 100 participants, though beware the threat of “Zoom-bombing” trolls). The candidate who likes to call himself “Middle-Class Joe” could return to his Pennsylvania hometown and show moral support for individuals in that economic stratum. There are a half a dozen Walmart food centers within a 25-mile radius of Scranton. Biden could drop by one and assist in curbside grocery pickups.

If the campaign is feeling more adventurous, why not send Biden to Los Angeles and assist that city’s school district in distributing meals to schoolkids and their families (last Friday, nearly 440,000 meals were offered at 64 “grab and go” food centers countywide)? Added bonus: the candidate could also trawl L.A.’s west side and his Hollywood following for some needed campaign dollars (this would have to be done virtually, which would be an interesting test of the willingness of big donors to part with their dollars if a grip-and-grin isn’t involved).

Biden isn’t the first presidential hopeful faced with the dilemma of whether to campaign amidst a national crisis. In 2008, the late John McCain suspended his campaign while Washington dealt with that’s year’s financial meltdown.

Twelve years later, it’s a different kind of crisis. Congress has acted, yet there’s no definitive end to the health scare, just extended deadlines. Uncertainty is in the air, along with the contagion. With social distancing now extended through April, Joe Biden should do the same – distance himself from partisan politics and embrace the goodness that runs throughout the nation that he wants to lead.

To paraphrase a former president: it’s Biden’s opportunity to prove that he’s “a different kind of Democrat.”