VP Biden has made criticism of President Trump’s response to COVID-19 a recurring theme in his campaign. You can see what he plans to do differently here.
It looks pretty likely that COVID-19 will be the elephant in the room for the foreseeable future so it presents a conundrum. He can’t avoid speaking about it at all but IMO emphasizing it too much would be an error for the Biden campaign. Even if the entirety of what he proposes were enacted into law or effected via executive order, I doubt it would change the course of events much.
He has a number of advantages over President Trump in that regard. He won’t have constant media sniping or a resistance within the permanent bureaucracy to contend with. But he can’t order a safe, effective vaccine into existence or mandate the availability of materials or guarantee that the results of the “free” tests (read: paid for by the federal government) that play a prominent role in his plans will be available on a timely basis.
If he’s elected and if a safe, effective vaccine is available by 3Q2021 and if people are vaccinated in sufficient number, he could be a national hero. But that’s a lot of ifs. I think it’s a lot more likely that we will have COVID-19 to contend with for the foreseeable future, governors will continue to be major forces in dealing with emergencies, and his complaints about Trump’s handling of COVID-19 will ring more hollow in 3Q2021 than they do now.
I think it’s encouraging that the Russians and the Cubans believe they have a vaccine and are testing it on people. They are likely jumping the gun but we don’t do that kind of shotgun research and they may learn something useful.
‘But he can’t order a safe, effective vaccine into existence or mandate the availability of materials or guarantee that the results of the “free†tests (read: paid for by the federal government) that play a prominent role in his plans will be available on a timely basis.’
But his campaign can accuse OMB of holding up a vaccine and safe effective timely tests. Especially that ‘ol Cuban vaccine that will be touted as a triumph of collectivist medicine and will likely prove to be useless (it happened before).
‘read: paid for by the federal government’
Paid by you and me and the taxpayer behind the tree.
‘I think it’s encouraging that the Russians and the Cubans believe they have a vaccine and are testing it on people.’
Who are the Cubans testing the vaccine on? Prisoners slated for execution? That would be a twofer, if they die, it didn’t work, if they live, they get executed.
Yeah, I’m real cynical right now about the election. On the bright side, I still have a lot to be grateful for. A wonderful wife, a roof over my head, no worries about mealtimes or finances, no rolling blackouts. With all the s**t going on one has to put things in perspective and count what blessings one does instead of bitching about what one doesn’t have or how the world seems to be going to hell.
“He won’t have constant media sniping or a resistance within the permanent bureaucracy”
You seem to honestly believe there is not a right wing press. Wow. Anyway, no matter what he does they will be after him. He will have just as much resistance from the permanent bureaucracy.
OTOH, he wont be telling us it is a hoax and anyone who wants a test can have one.
Offhand I can’t think of any major medical advances baby the Russians. Cant find any on the internet. Maybe I dont know where to look. Maybe they dont do cutting edge medical research.
Steve
Of course there’s a “right wing press”. Fox News, Breitbart, a few others.
The NYT is now the “left wing press” as are ABC, CBS, NBC, the New Yorker, the Atlantic and CNN. IMO the “left wing press” is much more influential than the “right wing press”. You think it’s the opposite?
I don’t recall the permanent bureaucracy organizing a resistance against Obama. Has my memory failed me?
Even if there is no vaccine; at the current rate of spread; a significant portion, maybe even a majority of Americans will have had the virus
by Q3’21.
Unless previous infections confers no immunity to severe/mortal disease in subsequent infections; by Q3 next year the rate in people getting hospitalized or killed by COVID will decrease significantly.
i.e. my guess is any plan starting Jan of next year will be maybe 6 months too late to have much impact.
“IMO the “left wing press†is much more influential than the “right wing pressâ€. You think it’s the opposite?”
Not opposite, but equal. You know that most people on the right dont believe or read the NYT so it has no influence with them. The right have their own media. The difference is that on right wing media, or the real left media, you wont read or hear anything that hurts its own team. So the NYT published extensively on Hillary’s emails. The WSJ, Breitbart, Fox, Sinclair, etc would not do the equivalent to undercut itself.
I don’t recall the permanent bureaucracy organizing a resistance against Trump. Has my memory failed me?
Steve
Please provide evidence. The combined viewership of ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN dwarfs Fox News. Yes, Fox has greater viewership than MSNBC—about the same as MSNBC and CNN combined but when you add ABC, NBC, and CBS there really is no comparison. There is no print journalism equivalent to either NYT or WaPo on the right. And you’re simply wrong about WSJ’s bias. You keep repeating the claim but that doesn’t make it true. Its news reporting is unbiased; its opinion pieces lean right just as PBS’s news reporting is unbiased while its opinion leans left.
Yes, it has. The Justice Department, State, and CIA have all been working against Trump. At this point I think that’s beyond argument.
The obstruction and resistance to Obama’s presidency was a smidgen of what sideswiped Trump’s presidency, while the press fawned over everything Obama said and did so intensely that any investigative curiosity over Obama’s foreign policy foibles or domestic policy miscues were lost in the shuffle of their adoration for him. His speech at the DNC convention only reawakened that “Obama love,†to the detriment of the candidates he was giving his endorsement to – Harris and Biden.
As to which party has the media advantage – the playing field is heavily weighted for the left wingers, versus the right wing. 95% of the MSM is in the tank for Dems, followed by 100% of social media. The only forum where conservative thought has a strong foothold is radio, and for some reason leftism just hasn’t been able to get a grip there – although, they certainly have tried.
So Biden is ready to “Spend whatever it takes”, to meet public health needs and deal with the mounting economic consequences. Presumably more debt,
While simultaneously shuttering the economy for as long as it takes.
I really hope he doesn’t mean to try that.
I take the campaign at its word.
First, based on the daily death rate, the covid-19 pandemic is over, and we are pretty far out on the declining tail.
Second, veterinarians have largely failed to develop vaccines for similar animal coronaviruses, so it is likely there won’t be one for humans, either. By the way, the Russians did NOT announce they had a vaccine. They announced that they had a promising candidate, and were proceeding to tertiary testing. We’ll have to wait to see how that turns out. Tertiary testing involves large numbers of people.
Third, the federal government has no real powers regarding pandemics. Its functions are almost entirely advisory. It can approve or disapprove treatments, and that’s about it. The primary responses are under the authority of State governors, like your esteemed JB Pritzker.
I think Biden’s claim he would shut down the economy again at the suggestion of a scientist was a strategic error. People have seen that movie.
I see Steve has been hitting the Jack Daniels.
As I recall there were non-stop investigations of the Obama administration, IRS, Fast and Furious, Benghazi. Absolutely no leaking out how the FBI was unhappy about how Hillary wouldnt get charged about the emails. Fair amount of resistance. Social media is 100% liberal. Remind me who holds the title to tweeter in chief. It is bizarre to believe that.
Then lets remember it is 2020 not 1970. Most people no longer get their news from the major media. NYT reaches about 3 million if you include online subscription. Nightly news about 21 million. Plus, there is a huge difference between what they do compared with what the real left and right wing news sites do. Abc, NBC, CBS covered all of the Hillary’s email stories in great detail. They covered all 8 of the Benghazi investigations and the 3 year long IRS investigation where they found nothing and the Trump DOJ didnt even charge Lerner. The right wing media really doesnt do that. Yes, you might get a brief story about something bad Trump does, but it gets glossed over. When Obama did something it was non-stop, like you get with CNN.
Finally (almost), remembering that most people dont get their news from major outlets, even if they do, organizations like Sinclair are buying up TV stations. So on NBC, etc you are getting conservative, heavily biased news. It is simply not remotely believable that i a capitalist country that there is no media catering to the right. It is much larger than you want to acknowledge and i ti influential. I hope you dont believe stupid stuff like jan does that 100% of social media is liberal. Conservatives have their own.
“And you’re simply wrong about WSJ’s bias. You keep repeating the claim but that doesn’t make it true.”
Your repeating it doesnt make it true either. Would have agreed up until Murdoch bought it AND Trump was elected. That tipped them over. As I recall, they lost a few reporters over it.
Steve
I have produced corroborating evidence multiple times. You are still yet to provide any evidence other than your own opinion.
And, responding to your point about the present impact of alternative news sources, the left-leaning bias of Google and social media is well-known and well-documented. So, no proof of your claim there, either.