Trump's illness makes it clear: This election was always about the virus

The coronavirus pandemic has resisted Mr. Trump's efforts to change the subject and quashed the wishful thinking of countless voters who shared his hope it would fade quickly

The 2020 election was always going to end like this.

Perhaps not precisely like this. Perhaps not with the president and the first lady contracting the coronavirus, along with the head of the Republican National Committee and members of the White House staff. Perhaps not with the campaign calendar thrown into disarray and the remaining debates in jeopardy.

But if the nature of this October climax was unpredictable, it seemed all but foreordained that the coronavirus pandemic would dominate the campaign to the end. And for all of the tumult of therace between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr.