This is utter horseshit though. I expect the POTUS to be able to handle more than one thing at a time effectively. He’s not the only president to have hard political opposite, he’s not even the only president to be impeached. You own the big office, you should be able to play ball in the big leagues. Besides which, business CEOs and CFOs handle multiple fires as well as opposition EVERY DAY. That was one of his marketing points–“I have experience, I’m a business guy, I know how to get things done and not get distracted”
The problem isnt that he restricted travel from China. The problem is that he STOPPED there. He didn’t do anything else and as a result we lost 6 weeks of cushion to set out surveillance at airports, get airport health checks and testing (don’t get me started on the testing), get supply chains in shape, bulk up PPE at hospitals, and a bunch of other things.
The thing is it’s really easy from a speech standpoint for President’s during crises imo. Not that handling the crisis is easy, but your public reactions are. People want calm and direct speech. They want speech that is unifying. They don’t want attacking people left and right. They don’t want rushed to judgement. And they probably don’t really want tweets comparing ratings to the bachelor.
GWB was famous for having problems with his speeches. But if one goes back and looks at his talks in regards to 9/11 he basically knocked it out of the park in my opinion. Many of his initial speeches about what happened I thought were very well delivered.
“We’re going to be ok, we’re all in this fight together, now is not the time for petty shit from leaders. Your government is working tirelessly to help on this and we know all of you are doing your part as well.” Some semblance of that type of message is what people want. They may dislike your details from time to time on the crisis. But how you act in public as a leader during difficult times is the easy part. Trump actually has moments where he does this correctly. It’s just followed later by a different crazy ass speech, blowing up on people, or insane tweets.
“Trump likely heard about chloroquine after it was amplified by right-wing media. The night before his briefing, on Fox News, which he watches religiously, Tucker Carlson had (link) hosted Gregory Rigano, a man who has self-published a Google Docs paper also praising chloroquine. Though Rigano (link) was billed on the show as a “Stanford University School of Medicine adviser,” he is not a doctor, and Stanford has denied any association with him. But that didn’t stop Carlson and Glenn Beck from hosting Rigano on their respective shows, or Elon Musk from tweeting out the “paper” to his 32 million followers. It was also written up in places like Breitbart and the Daily Wire. After Trump’s briefing, Fox News ran a story online with the (link) headline ‘Drug cleared by Trump, FDA for coronavirus testing also found in fish tanks.’” https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/man-drank-fish-tank-cleaner-dies-as-trump-touts-chloroquine.html
Again - you’d have to be really, really, really dumb to do what that couple did, but all that really happened here was Trump watched his favorite news channel, repeat what was on that news channel, and then that news channel repeated what Trump repeated about that news channel, and a couple dumb people listened.
People voted for Trump out of fear and distrust of other politicians. That’s not inherently dumb. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that Trump has been a lifelong politician. New Yorkers by and large don’t like Trump because we’ve dealt with people trying to sell us fake rolexes for as long as we’ve lived there. He’s just a guy selling fake rolexes, and the people who voted for him are the tourists who buy the fake rolexes. The idea that anybody who’s literally never slept outside of a penthouse or a five-star hotel in their entire lives would give a shit about somebody in a trailer park in the midwest is laughable, but if you insult enough people and flaunt your money enough, you get credibility.
I really agree here. The man was a fundamentally good guy, with a terrible impediment to public speaking lol. But he knew what needed to be heard and he helped communicate it consistently.
I think he hit a lot of good notes as well. Take care of America first and worry about others has long been popular in the country even if it hasn’t always been popular in DC. That idea was popular before Trump and it will be popular long after him.
I just could never square with what he was actually saying about things. I honestly didn’t know much about him other than he was rich and had been on reality tv which I never watch anyways. I thought it was very clear early on that he had an alarmingly low level of understanding of the responsibilities of the office and was mostly making things up. Rand Paul had to point out that China wasn’t in the TPP which he had been hammering for a bit was an early sign. I thought it was clear he wasn’t attempting to really learn which is what you often hear about candidates do as they prepare for a run. Watching the Republican race early I don’t think anyone thought he was credible nor a serious candidate.
The focus was never really on him early. It was hammering the expected front runners. Even as he built momentum I thought Republicans would eventually settle on someone more well versed. I thought it was obvious with the grand things he was saying that they were going to be impossible to do.
He never even attempted much in terms of specifics. He had a plan to defeat ISIS and knew more than the generals. Mexico was gonna pay for that wall. If you didn’t care about the how there was something about his consistency that I could definitely see the appeal in for people. He wasn’t selling “here’s how I’m going to achieve this” at all. He was selling he could achieve it. As if he could will it into being true by insisting.
When you couple that with one of the least popular presidential candidates in history the win wasn’t completely insane. Unlikely still. And I even remember when he was elected thinking that he would become Presidential that moment. He would stop the dumbass tweets, stop attacking people left and right, realize the power of the position and choose his words carefully. In hindsight I was dumb for thinking that…but it was my honest thoughts at the time. I even remember telling people in my personal life who thought he was nuts that. I didn’t know his character enough to know that he wouldn’t do any of those things.
I don’t agree with Z that supporting him then was dumb on all people. Naive and hopeful perhaps and interested to see someone who didn’t talk like a politician. But then we realized he doesn’t talk like a grown up even.
Ardent supporters now with all this evidence? Yeah maybe lacking a bit.
I really appreciate what you posted. I’m a cashier at Costco Wholesale, and I just want to say I really enjoy folks that take the time out of their days to say encouraging words like that.
I choose to not focus on the aspect that there’s a very real chance of me contracting this thing, but when I’m scanning hundreds of items I’m just hoping some of my calmness reaches someone. Anyone really. I see panic in so many different sets of eyes throughout the day.
Most days I find myself choking back tears when I go to clock out, so hearing those things just adds to my optimism that I cling to every day of the week.
That’s not a huge surprise, just from the combination of somewhat large population plus business people coming and going, in my uninformed opinion. Preventing the US from being the most infected would probably have required lots of international airports spread all around the country to shutdown, fast
Thank you for doing what you do, bravery comes in many forms, not just on the battle field. You are now at the tip of the spear, far more exposed than I. I wish you good health and thanks for making people’s live better. Sincerely, idaho.
@planetcybertron I couldn’t agree more. We often think of bravery in physical terms. And it’s true, there’s no doubt. Idaho and others on here and in my family have shed blood for the sake of our country, whatever we all think of the politicians putting out the orders.
But there’s one thing I’ve learned, and it is that bravery is often unrecognized because it comes in all forms and often it’s behind the scenes. We ALL have our time to step up and be counted. But that’s the nature of service and bravery. A lot of times it may just be the community, or family, or friends, but it doesn’t make it any less important or any less difficult. Sometimes the example to be set comes from the places people would least expect it–like you, and the truckers driving long shifts, and countless others.
I’ve been a cashier in the past, and I frankly do not want to think about the abuse I know you’re taking every day from scared and angry people through no fault of your own. I’m sorry for that. Fear makes people do awful things. It reveals character, both good and bad, because it’s the only time you can really show bravery or service…if it didn’t require an act of will it wouldn’t really be brave would it? :).
Before giving up your life how do you know what particular action, except the obvious (still debatable), is going to make a difference or not? No need to go crazy
I think pretty much all of your questions to me have been answered by others. I’ll take some time to evaluate my biases as I am not sure how we come to such different conclusions based upon the events that have occurred.
A few points to make though.
Some country leaders have handled the coronavirus better than Trump. Some are pretty equivalent to Trump. Because there are several that are equal to Trump does not mean he did a good job.
He was impeached, so what? He still has responsibility to handle a health pandemic. If he can’t handle two items IMO he is not fit for office. This has already been pointed out, but thought it deserved a response.
I am not saying that he has done nothing good. Just as a whole it has been generally mishandled.
Again, I am not sure how we can interpret these events so differently. I’ll spend some time looking at my biases. I am trying to understand your point of view, I just can’t get there.
He has done some good things and some bad things in regards to ventilator production IMO. I think in a situation like this you need to be nearly flawless or people die unnecessarily. He hasn’t been close to flawless.
I genuinely want him to do a good job. I don’t like the man based on his character, but I want whats best for the country.
As do I. I get really annoyed when people think criticism of a leader means you’re against the country. Trump has absolutely done some good things as President and I have acknowledged those. He’s done some good things on coronavirus as well. I think on the whole he hasn’t handled coronavirus well at all. But I would never deny that he hasn’t made some good decisions.
On the whole though we have the most immature and erratic President in modern history. And that’s not what you want in a crisis. If people want a President who constantly attacks anyone who dares question a decision then we are so far away from what we expect out of a President I wouldn’t know where to begin. If people want someone who compares his speeches ratings to Monday Night Football while Americans are struggling I wouldn’t know where to begin.
But not a day in my life in his entire presidency (nor any other President) would I root for them to fail.
