Joe Biden’s Covid Fairy Tale His plan seems to be to wait until a magical sprite waves her wand and makes the virus vanish in a poof.By David Gelernter
https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-covid-fairy-tale-11604011900?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
The Democrats want to turn Covid against the president, and they appear to be succeeding. But their strategy makes no sense in the end—perhaps because Joe Biden makes no sense.
The first big problem is that President Trump’s handling of the plague has been sensible from the start. Be careful until treatment improves and a vaccine is ready. Pour all the money and resources you’ve got down the throats of America’s best research labs. This scheme is working. Fatality rates are way down, treatment has improved, and several vaccines are almost ready, all in record time.
It’s hard to attack a plan that is accomplishing its goals. Consider Mr. Biden’s claim that our high Covid death rate is the president’s fault. Actual scientists have other explanations, such as the high rates of pre-existing conditions in the U.S., and New York City—with its large population and population density—being one of our first hot spots and still exercising heavy influence on the figures. Our death rates remain lower than those of several large European countries. This accusation is pure Bidentalk: not merely false but greasy.
If Mr. Biden were a sensible man, he’d be promising more programs like Operation Warp Speed—the federal effort to accelerate the development of a vaccine. Naturally, Americans remain scared of the disease: It is highly infectious and can be serious to the elderly and, occasionally, to others. It’s hard to notice progress when you’re frightened.
Meanwhile, since Mr. Biden has nothing new to offer, his only choice is to say: Trust me and I’ll take care of everything. It’s exactly what Mr. Trump would be saying, if he were sufficiently dishonest. If you can’t offer protection, your obvious alternative is a protector, a cheerful good fairy who can clear up all your problems.
Instead of a careful, serious, scientifically informed and fast solution to the Covid problem, Mr. Biden offers his good fairy waiting impatiently in the wings. The Covid fairy explains why Democrats can’t answer any serious questions about their plan. Who will develop the new drugs? Roughly how long should it take? What kind of head start has the president’s Operation Warp Speed supplied? (Science can be useful even if Republicans pay for it.) Does the new approach center on disease management or a vaccine or both? How many vaccine doses will be available when, and for whom?
Democrats are at a loss because the good fairy won’t say. But the bottom line is this: One wave of her magic wand and the Covid fairy will make everything better. Eventually a President Biden would be forced to do what Mr. Trump is doing already: provide as much federal support as possible for the new drugs and treatments we need.
The president’s performance has hardly been perfect. He has delivered improper, exuberantly optimistic White House endorsements of certain drugs. The man was born an exuberant optimist, and no man can change his personality in midstream. But in these cases, he should have and could have reined it in.
He held a White House reception to celebrate the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, where few masks appeared and “social distancing” was out the window. This bad example had bad consequences. Many people caught the virus, including the president. Many others were harmed indirectly.
There is no way to deny it: The president is a reckless man, a risk-taker. That’s one important reason he was elected. He has run risks on behalf of America, and got benefits in return. He had the nerve to storm out of the Iran deal and slam the door behind him. We have new peace agreements in the Middle East. We have moved our embassy to the capital of Israel. Mr. Trump built a roaring good economy, one of the best in modern history. Now he is building it all over again. Still, the initial Barrett celebration was a mistake, a risk too far.
But Mr. Biden has made mistakes too. Jobless Joe comes bearing job losses instead of gains—and doesn’t seem to work very hard himself. He still can’t see why his choice of a running mate was not a mere exercise of his political instincts. Picking Kamala Harris was a studied insult to the American people. He might have chosen anyone—even a male! Instead, his choice is far to the left of Republicans, moderates and nearly all Democrats. Not even Democrats could work up any enthusiasm for Ms. Harris in the primaries. If Mr. Biden wins, Ms. Harris will be forced down America’s throat. If Mr. Biden dies in office, we will be in big trouble. Mr. Biden’s biggest choice so far could hardly have been worse. What does that portend?
Despite all the evidence, many conservatives won’t vote for the president—because he is in bad taste. The man is too vulgar to deserve classy conservatives voting for him.
The situation recalls the Democrats’ in 1948. Many Democrats hated Harry Truman because he was common and unpresidential. He played poker all night, put cronies in important positions and talked like an ordinary man—especially when compared with his majestic and well-loved predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Joe and Stewart Alsop wrote, in their famous syndicated column, President Truman was nothing more than an “average man in a neat gray suit.”
Although the word is no longer allowed, Mr. Trump, too, is accused of being “common.” Maybe that’s true. But if so, it isn’t likely to impede the discharge of his presidential duties in the future. After all, it hasn’t in the past. The average American is common, too. As a result, we are the richest, most powerful, most tolerant and freest nation in human history.
Maybe it isn’t so bad to be common.
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