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The Screaming Moderate

The corona virus is not Red or Blue

3/27/2020

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I was going to post about my nearing the age of 70 at a time when doctors are making life and death decisions partly based on age. But then I read this in today’s Washington Post:

“
“Behind the scenes, business leaders have lobbied (President) Trump not to invoke the (Defense Protection Act) and conservative advisers have warned the president that doing so would draw a backlash and could cut into his argument of running against socialism in the fall, said two administration officials.” (emphasis added)
 
Translation: Don’t use government (taxpayer) money to save (taxpayer) lives because it’ll take away your political argument that Democrats are “socialists.”

I imagine, too, those people advising him that way would like to focus the health efforts only in areas where Republicans dominate (OK, that's a horrible thing to say. I should not have said it).

The President will spend time tomorrow traveling to Norfolk, Virginia, to watch the U.S. naval ship Comfort as it starts its voyage to New York City to serve as a backup medical outlet to the health care workers who are risking their lives and working too many hours to try saving patients' lives. That’s what this president will do in the time of crisis. He’s going to send a ship that he said a week ago was already on its way, on its way.
 
I’ve had a least two Trump supporters in the last few days tell me virus isn't his fault, yet he’s “doing a good job.” They have that half right.
 
I’ve been a Trump critic sine the day he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy. I’ve always respected, I hope, anyone who disagrees with me. But since this man became President he has acted as if he’s the country's CEO. He’s supposed to be a servant of the people, not the other way around.
 
And we don’t need a CEO in the Oval Office, We need a President. There is a huge difference. (one is that a CEO's goal is to make a profit; a president's role is to provide for the health of safety of the citizens. Doing that a does not waste money.)
 
We know the President cannot snap his fingers and make ventilators appear, any more that an auto factory can snap its fingers and immediately be a ventilator factory. But the President can order them to make the transformation rather than take their time on a “volunteer” basis. The New York Times reports this morning that the government balked when it was told it would cost $1 billion to order enough ventilators, though a decision still hasn’t been made.
 
The President, in a Fox News (of course), interview last night said, “people want to go back to work, I’m hearing that loud and clear…Our country is based on that…”
 
Our country is not based on that. It’s based on freedom. It’s based on “we the people” not “I the President.”  The President of the United States’ job is to protect the health and safety of the American people. All of us.

He also said, “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes and they’ll have two ventilators. All of a sudden they’re saying ‘can you order 30,000 ventilators?'”
 
Yes Dr. Trump, that’s because there’s a damn corona virus killing people all over the world. Ventilators can save lives.

There is no vaccine or treatment yet for this virus.  People will die before either can be developed.Ventilators will save some of their lives. If the ventilators become surplus after the pandemic disappears, fabulous they’ve done their jobs.

If they are never needed again, the investment was well worth it. It will have made that  CEO "profit" in the form of human beings who did not die.

Trump also this week set a target of Easter to get “America opened again.” He said it would be beautiful to see packed churches on Easter. I’m not sure how his religious followers feel about that but I can tell you if that happens, there will be a lot of very sick people within 14 days after Easter. (No, I’m not a doctor, but I feel confident in that prediction … and I hope I’m wrong.)
 
Apparently Trump’s business advisors are telling him not to be a “socialist” and give even more money to help save lives. Apparently those same people are saying the economy needs to get back on track sooner than later. Or, they say, the President is hurting his chances of re-election.
 
The President, of course, doesn’t look to me for political advice but I feel pretty safe in saying: Forget the politics. The road to re-election is to get us – all of us - through this ordeal with as few lives lost as possible.

And making sure even those of us who are over or nearing 70 survive.



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Truth in the eye of a storm

3/20/2020

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It’s tradition that when in the midst of a crisis – war, famine, pandemic – one holds back on any criticism of the President to allow good vibes and for him to lead us out of the problem.

President Trump doesn’t observe such traditions – as he points fingers at the “Chinese virus,” as he repeatedly exaggerates and lies during briefings which are supposed to help calm the populace.

He actually squandered the right to a “criticism recess,” during his first three and a half years as President. That’s when a President is supposed to be earning credibility so he has it – just for this purpose! We need to believe someone and the President should be that someone. We are not facing a political issue. We are in the middle of a pandemic.

The brief respite, at Monday’s news briefing, threw everyone off their seats as he appeared to be the calm, responsive President we all need in this time of anxiety, uncertainty and fear.

That lasted a day.

He is back to exaggerating, lying and more. And he adds to the anxiety we all are feeling. You may have noticed that the last few days neither Anthony Fauci, the world’s leading expert on infectious diseases, and the head of the Center for Disease Control have been absent from the daily briefings.

Why have they been missing? I don’t know but I think a possibility is that they know they’d have to, in real time, correct the President and the President doesn’t like being corrected. So he excluded them. I am totally guessing on that. Or as the President would say, “That’s why they haven’t been here and then again, maybe not.”

Yesterday Trump glowingly announced a new drug was developed and approved at record speed by the Federal Food and Drug Administration(FDA) that could significantly help us face down this pandemic. The truth? The opposite, which was diplomatically explained literally a minute later, when the FDA head talked right after the president and explained the drug at issue was developed and is in use for another disease (malaria) but seems to be able to help coronavirus victims. So, despite the president saying it was available by prescription, it isn’t for coronavirus because it’s still being tested for that use to make sure it doesn’t do more harm than good. That's what the FDA does, makes sure drugs are safe and do good, not harm.

Repeat: The President of the United States proclaimed a new drug had been approved by the FDA that can significantly help fight this pandemic. Or course then he added, “and maybe not.” Thus, he can later say he did not lie. But he did carnival bark (a new phrase I just coined, or maybe not).

The President is better off standing to the side because then he can bathe in the  praise from his loyal Vice President who precedes every step of progress with “as the President directed,” “as the President instructed,” and “thanks to the President’s great leadership.’

If you think Donald Trump is sitting in meetings coming up with ideas on this pandemic and directing their implementation in this crisis --- well, MAGA to you.

If you watch the President closely in those briefings you can see his eyes darting to the press as accolades are piled on him by his minions to try to spot them admiringly looking at him. Or, you can believe the President when he says, as he did yesterday, “”And you know what? Someday, hopefully in five years, I won’t be here and that will be fine. I will have done, I think, a great job.” Etc. Etc and thank you Lord Trump.

Most of those people standing behind Trump at the briefings, especially Fauci when he attends and Dr. Deborah Birx -- they are smart, experienced and straight talkers. Let them talk, Mr. President. You’ll get more credit. And, the country will be better informed.

Maybe when the President calls it the “Chinese Virus” he isn’t being racist. But he is being Donald Trump who brands everything and everybody for his own political purposes (right, Sleepy Joe? Crazy Hillary?). This isn’t the time for branding, boasting or exaggeration.

That reporter he called on from One America News? She asked whether “Chinese food” was a racist phrase because Trump is called by some racist for using “Chinese virus?” That little disgusting episode, where Trump took off on the media, was like Khrushchev calling on Pravda to ask a question. “You’ll remember, sir, we went over this question and answer before? And if we didn't, make it up. It's cool.”

Those Navy medical ships he ordered to New York and California to help out? One is in for repairs, and has been. Both need to be outfitted for this purpose and it takes some days to get the ships to their destinations. They aren’t “on their way,” Mr. President. Those cruise ships the owner volunteered? They are cruise ships, not hospital ships and, too, need to be outfitted and staffed by medical professionals, who are falling into short supply.

And outfitting them? That means hospital masks and gowns that hospitals are pleading for even now. That defense emergency bill the President invoked but said he hasn’t used yet and governors should be ordering the supplies themselves?? The governor of Massachusetts told the President that  each time his people call to order something, they run in to federal orders ahead and get stalled. Which is it? 

Remember when the Administration said one million tests would be available in days and four million the following week? Where are they?

The President is berating the press because he feels he doesn’t get enough credit for, months ago, closing our border to Chinese travelers because of the flu. He says it would be “much worse” if he hadn’t done that. Well, Mr. President this is getting much worse and thanks for blocking the Chinese a few months ago it did help. It didn’t stop it, though. There is much more to be done.

And as for your “knowing” it was a pandemic before it was proclaimed a pandemic by the World Health Organization? There are no words except "bull ... shit" to respond to that.

The media makes mistakes, no doubt about. But the mainstream media does not make mistakes on purpose. The President flat out lies. Even now. When people are dying.

When I worked in the White House press shop my boss told his staff regularly, “if the Washington Post is saying it happened, believe it. Even if our own people are denying it.”

Truth is what wins out always and the credibility in the time of crisis is the most valuable thing a public official owns.

Unfortunately, our President is bankrupt on both counts.


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Trump, and the country, in crisis

3/13/2020

1 Comment

 
For some years now, many of us have been saying the Emperor has no clothes. Wednesday night, when he appeared live from the Oval Office, which, prior to this situation was something that signaled a very important presidential message to the country, President Trump appeared rhetorically naked.

To some of us, that was no surprise. But what is a bit surprising is:


  • Immediately after he signed off, even Trump knew he messed up by ad libbing (incorrectly) a couple of facts about his own program to protect the country sending the worldwide markets into a historic decline and confusing leaders of other countries who were not warned about what Trump was (intending) to say
  • His incoming chief of staff, Mark Meadows, left a self-imposed 14-day quarantine for the coronavirus to attend an Oval Office meeting, exposing the President, Vice President, Prime Minister of Ireland and other senior U.S. and Irish officials to his possible virus
  • The President claims he has not been tested for the disease despite being in close proximity to at least three people who have been exposed to it and at least one who has the virus. (Actually, I view it as irresponsible for the President of the United States not to be tested in this situation. Indeed he is, the Leader of the Free World.)
  • When the “adults” were called in to the room prior to the speech to write and choreograph it, in marched Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and a senior advisor, putting aside his other duties (like negotiating Middle East peace and effectively running the President’s re-election campaign and other things), to join with Steven Miller, whose only solution to any problem is to stop folks from other country’s coming here. Neither of them is a virus or health expert. And in that speech, it showed.
  • Many law enforcement agencies, when they hold a press conference to announce a major bust, crowd others involved behind the chief of police. Why, I don’t really know but assume its to at least optically share the credit. Vice President Pence does the same thing when he holds his near-daily coronavirus briefings. At the same time, the experts behind him are telling us to keep six-feet between ourselves to protect against getting the virus. Which is it?

Yes, we should have known from the get-go that this speech would fail. Before he uttered a word, we could see the Leader of the Free World literally twiddling his thumbs, as he did throughout the speech, obviously nervous because he knows he is incapable of delivering empathy or important, factual information to the country, too afraid he'll be blamed.

In short, those 10 minutes exposed Trump and his trusted aides as totally incompetent. And people are dying. (For those who right now are saying “yea, but what about Obama,” I don’t particularly care today what Obama did wrong or right. He’s not the President. Trump is.)

Even Vice President Pence, assigned to coordinate the virus response effort, has to begin every briefing with five minutes telling us how Trump directed this and ordered that while, frankly, we don’t care ... just tell us what you’re doing to protect us, not Trump. Trump’s the President. He’ll get the credit or the blame for any situation that he’s responsible for. That goes with the job.

During that 10-minute address to the nation, Trump defaulted to his primary lines of defense and attack – lie and blame others for the virus. In fact, in the middle of the biggest non-self-inflicted crisis of his presidency, Trump, promising to take immediate action to stimulate the economy and maybe even fight the virus, has not spoken to the Speaker of the House, the main player in coming up with such a package. Nor has he, reportedly, since the impeachment. That he has totally delegated to his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin – who knew we’d be happy with Mnuchin being in charge?

And what’s the President’s response to the biggest drop in the stock market since the 1980s? Blame the Fed. Blame the Democrats. Blame the media.

To my Trump supporter friends, I truly hope that you get, now, that this crisis was not created by the media or is a “hoax” by the Democrats and that this truly is a life-or-death situation. Yes, we’re reading worst-case scenario op-eds and hearing similar interviews from folks who truly are experts in this field. Thanks to them -- because while we shouldn’t be panicking, we also deserve to know what we may be facing in the future, and be grateful if we don’t.

In crisis communications, the first to-do is to choose a credible spokesman so your constituencies can trust what they hear. The second is to be transparent in what you’re saying – so people can make informed decisions about their well-being.

To that end, thank you to a Denizen of the Deep State, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who wasn’t assigned that role but comes to it naturally because he indeed is an expert in viruses and respected the world over.

We need those Deep Staters to lead us out of this crisis, so we can be grateful while the President sits there and twiddles his thumbs.



1 Comment

Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles...

3/4/2020

1 Comment

 
Former Vice President Joe Biden obviously had a Super Tuesday and a Very Excellent Wednesday morning when former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination. Plus Bloomberg is not taking his ball and going home but is promising to spend millions of his personal fortune to defeat Donald Trump.

Some of Biden’s wins were not major surprises but some were. He didn’t campaign in either Sen. Amy Klobacher’s backyard of Minnesota or Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Massachusetts, but he won both states. Warren finished a bad third in Massachusetts and while she says she’ll continue in the race, that’s unlikely to last for long.

Biden being able to quickly get former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Klobachar to endorse him went a long way to helping bring unity to the Democratic Party, or at least to a good chunk of the party. Warren will be under great pressure to get out, and my guess is she will soon – once she’s able to have talks with the Biden camp about her role going forward in both creating the party platform and Biden’s presidency, should he win. (If you can't win your own state, it's unlikely you'd be named the vice presidential candidate.)

That will leave, basically, only Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race. And my guess is, as he did four years ago, he will continue his march pretty much to the Democratic convention. Remember, he is not a Democrat so, despite his claims to the contrary, he really isn’t here to unify the Democratic Party.

If he went another week or two, and Biden continues to beat him, Sanders should get out. At the moment he has sufficient support to stay in.

But, consider the impact it would have if Sanders immediately announced he’s “suspending” his campaign and endorsed Biden. Biden’s support plus whatever backing Sanders could transfer to him would be a major step in defeating Trump. Don’t hold your breath.

Meanwhile Trump is tweeting how Warren should get out of the race because she’s hurting Sanders. So, really, who do you think Trump wants to run against? He’s always feared Biden, with Biden’s warts and all.

And the message millions of voters sent yesterday, many deciding in the final hours before Super Tuesday, they too think Biden is the best option to beat Trump.

One more thing about Sanders, to see how the tide is changing. He is losing support and, despite his claims that he will get turnout to increase, younger voters were not turning out yesterday. And, Sanders was getting lower totals in states, including his home of Vermont.

He has a ceiling on support he can attract and he’s likely not just reached it, but is losing some of it.

It ain’t over, of course. But it would be something if Warren drops out and, Sanders does the best thing he can do which is to stop splintering the electorate and dropping out to support Biden.

Unlikely? Yes, but just a few days ago you wouldn’t have believed Biden’s comeback (miracle?) either.

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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