Evaluating the political impact on the election campaign of the coronavirus pandemic is obviously hazardous, but not fruitless or impossible. We can see from the Chinese experience, although that government has lied about every other aspect of the problem, that the incidence and impact of the disease are finally abating. The administration must not let China off the hook on its duplicity and negligence in exporting the coronavirus to the world, misleading the world about its impact, and finally claiming a great administrative success and purporting to engage in the extension of a humanitarian ”Silk Road” to other countries of medical supplies. But it can also cite evidence, which is generally corroborated by observers in China and the revival of Chinese industrial exports, that the illness has turned the corner in that country and that the temptations of unlimited panic that afflict the stock exchanges every other day are unjustified.
A preliminary vaccine was tested in Seattle on Monday, and the testing fiasco, which was compounded by Health and Human Services Secretary Azar’s promise ten days ago of four million tests last week, very few of which occurred, seems to be getting off the launch pad this week. This has been frustrating, but tests aren’t a cure, and those who test negative today may be infected tomorrow; they are useful in determining whom to quarantine. Given that the United States has, thanks to the president personally, acted more quickly than China or Western Europe to take avoidance measures in international travel, and can learn from the failures as well as the successes of the Chinese, it should be possible to ensure that the coronavirus is in decline in the United States by early summer. If a week is proverbially a long time in politics, it’s an eternity in communicable diseases.
The challenge for the administration, now that the private sector is rumbling into action as in the war mobilization of 1941, which startled the world by its undreamed of productivity (e.g. 125,000 aircraft and ten million tons of ships a year), will be to protect the vulnerable (elderly and infirm), flatten the rise of the illness, and avoid the complete collapse of the economy, as occurred for at least two months in China. The president, after an uneven start, is now speaking clearly and sensibly and behaving like the proven executive he is; scientists are foremost in the committee chaired by the vice president and in the press briefings conducted by both men.
The president’s political instincts, which have been demonstrated to be acute on many occasions, seem to have come to his rescue as he steadily raised his game from dangerously flippant assurances and dismissals of “the flu,” to self-compliments on his scientific insight, to his somewhat awkward Oval Office address (though the content was unexceptionable), to crisp, professional group appearances where fluent and learned specialists do most of the talking and the president has a precise grasp of the basic points and of who does what. As long as that continues to be case, and as long as the American national performance in dealing with the coronavirus appears to be competitive with that of all other countries, Trump should be safe politically. No one can blame him for the origination of the problem, and it is undisputed that he acted presciently in closing air traffic from China in January and from Europe last week. These were his decisions, and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, declared when Trump imposed the air-travel suspension with China that it was an act of “racism” and “xenophobia.” If need be, Biden can be forcefully reminded of that fact. Polls show support for the president holding steady, having, presumably, absorbed his uneven performance in the early stages of the crisis.
At the press briefings, the president has responded personally and with commendable grasp of the subject even to the most formerly hostile reporters from the most antagonistic media outlets. In group and individual conversations with governors, he has been direct and forthcoming, and he has been praised even by such an implacable adversary as Governor Gavin Newsom of California. Trump grasped early enough that this was such a serious matter that there would be no public toleration of rank partisanship, a lesson that Nancy Pelosi picked up fairly quickly, at least in her public comments, but apparently not the incorrigibly tawdry Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer. He grinds on, proffering cheap shots to empty Senate benches as if on autocue and oblivious to the clangorous tone of such comments in these circumstances.
On present form, the president is professional, focused, and courteous, giving straight answers to questions and following the advice of the country’s foremost authorities in relevant medical and public-health areas, and the response to the emergency is ramping up very quickly — at this point, faster than the new incidences of the malady. After being left in the gate on testing, with all samples sent to Atlanta for evaluation, the president has promised free testing for all Americans, with 250,000 tests this week, a million next week, and a vertical upward curve beyond that. Such a trajectory will put the U.S. medical authorities ahead of all other countries in epidemiological self-awareness within a few weeks.
Trump and his team will answer questions as long as questions are asked and they don’t try to “run out the clock” with long, verbose responses. Still, the DNC media tries to get those “gotcha” questions in, more interested in what the disease is called and who’s feelings it artificially hurts than the progress that has been and is being made.
The corner won’t be turned until the left stops stirring up fear and panic in their pointless mission to make Biden appear to be a viable option to Trump. He himself has proven he is NOT.
@Deplorable Me: After learning what type of CDC that was inherited, I think he is doing a great job. A better more streamlined, task oriented CDC will immerge. Perhaps we will not see another nationwide lock down repeated.
@kitt: I’m sure if there was a sudden shortage of gender pronouns, the CDC could respond flawlessly, but they appear unequipped to deal with real-world issues now.
I’m not sure something other than “a shaky start” was possible with a surprise pandemic, also given it was covered up China, and the WFO said it wasn’t contagious.
I refuse to let the media manufacture another “Katrina” propaganda hoax.
@Nathan Blue: Well, these are people who are used to perfection. Remember Obama’s “perfect” response to Deepwater Horizon? The disaster CAUSED by his MMS appointee? His refusal to step on a union little toe by suspending the Jones Act? Then there’s the thousands that died during N1H1. But, Trump acting immediately while having to reform the FDA and CDC on the fly making a few mistakes and calling the Chinese virus “Chinese virus” is unacceptably less than perfect.