Boomer Champions of the Coronapocalypse

[sbarrera]

The COVID-19 pandemic has been rough on the President, as he is temperamentally unfit for executive leadership of a nation-state in the first place, and not good at coping with the pressure of daily press briefings about a relentless crisis. But he does seem to at least have tamed the press, and gathered a team that understands his need for deference and loyalty, which means they have a good chance of lasting through the crisis. 

The pandemic, however, has allowed other members of his generation to demonstrate their strong leadership skills, sometimes in concert with the President, and sometimes on their own, despite what is coming out of the White House. I'm thinking of Boomers such as-

Mike Pence (b. 1959) - Vice President and chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force
Deborah Birx (b. 1956) - response coordinator for the same task force
Andrew Cuomo (b. 1957) - Governor of New York state (whom people are jokingly calling the actual President)

And I have been impressed with my governor, who is probably not getting the same level of exposure-

Tom Wolf (b. 1948) - Governor of Pennsylvania

Please add more as you think of them.

[Snowflake1996]

I was gonna add Tim Walz since I was positive he was a boomer but somehow he was born in 1964.

[Blazkovitz]

Cuomo for President 2024?

[Warren Dew]

Donald Trump (b. 1946) - President of the United States. Has thus far kept US fatalities an order of magnitude below EU fatalities thanks to travel restrictions from China and Europe that were unpopular at the time, but are now generally acknowledged to have been excellent decisions.

Charlie Baker (b. 1956) - Governor of Massachusetts. Has imposed effective mitigation measures in a timely way, while trying to avoid overreaction.

[David Horn]

(03-26-2020, 12:16 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Donald Trump (b. 1946) - President of the United States.  Has thus far kept US fatalities an order of magnitude below EU fatalities thanks to travel restrictions from China and Europe that were unpopular at the time, but are now generally acknowledged to have been excellent decisions.

Please tell me this is a joke.  No one, and I truly mean no one, can objectively look at Trump's performance on this or any other issue and find anything to laud.  In this case, he still refuses to use the Defense Procurement Act to get needed supplies into the system, at a time we're becoming the most infected nation on earth.  That alone qualifies as malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance on a grand scale.  Reopening the country in the middle of a pandemic might qualify as reckless endangerment or worse!

[Warren Dew]

President Trump's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been highly successful so far. The US only has 1000 deaths to date, compared to 16,000 so far in Europe, largely due to Trump's prompt action in restricting travel from China, and later from Europe. Deaths are about as objective as it gets. In addition, while the US economy is now taking a severe hit, it's not nearly as bad as the EU economy, at least so far.

I was actually opposed to the China travel restrictions at the beginning, but Trump was right and I was wrong.

I expect we'll have to agree to disagree on this. From my side, it looks like Trump opponents are just refusing to see anything good about him, so I doubt there's any way to reach agreement on this.

[Eric the Green]

(03-25-2020, 08:20 AM)sbarrera Wrote: The COVID-19 pandemic has been rough on the President, as he is temperamentally unfit for executive leadership of a nation-state in the first place, and not good at coping with the pressure of daily press briefings about a relentless crisis. But he does seem to at least have tamed the press, and gathered a team that understands his need for deference and loyalty, which means they have a good chance of lasting through the crisis. 

The pandemic, however, has allowed other members of his generation to demonstrate their strong leadership skills, sometimes in concert with the President, and sometimes on their own, despite what is coming out of the White House. I'm thinking of Boomers such as-

Mike Pence (b. 1959) - Vice President and chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force
Deborah Birx (b. 1956) - response coordinator for the same task force
Andrew Cuomo (b. 1957) - Governor of New York state (whom people are jokingly calling the actual President)

And I have been impressed with my governor, who is probably not getting the same level of exposure-

Tom Wolf (b. 1948) - Governor of Pennsylvania

Please add more as you think of them.

I think my CA governor is doing well, Gavin Newsom, but he's an Xer b.1967, a possible presidential candidate for the 1T.

Washington's governor Jay Inslee is responding in an excellent way. He was born in 1951.

[Eric the Green]

(03-27-2020, 11:29 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: President Trump's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been highly successful so far.  The US only has 1000 deaths to date, compared to 16,000 so far in Europe, largely due to Trump's prompt action in restricting travel from China, and later from Europe.  Deaths are about as objective as it gets.  In addition, while the US economy is now taking a severe hit, it's not nearly as bad as the EU economy, at least so far.

I was actually opposed to the China travel restrictions at the beginning, but Trump was right and I was wrong.

I expect we'll have to agree to disagree on this.  From my side, it looks like Trump opponents are just refusing to see anything good about him, so I doubt there's any way to reach agreement on this.

Trump delayed the necessary actions, saying the contagion would pass and calling it another hoax to discredit his re-election campaign. He as usual is not consistent, one time responding as any other president would, and at other times saying unhelpful things like "I'll help you NY if you don't criticize me" and "I expect we can all go back to work for Easter." His previous actions of decreasing funds and personnel of the CDC and pandemics response is hampering response to COVID19, and his slowness in enacting wartime defense production acts to require industry to produce ventilators and other needed equipment has further hampered response. The result now is that the USA is the most infected nation, with the NY/NJ area as severe an epicenter as any place in Europe. USA deaths have topped 1700 and the trend lines remain straight up everywhere, except where countries have already done the things that Trump is slow to do.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

The problem is exactly the opposite. Too many Americans, 47%, refuse to see anything bad about him and are following this egotistic, narcissistic demagogue tyrant no matter what he does.

Europe's infection rate happened sooner than that in the USA. About a week ago the USA was #8 on the list and moving up fast while Europe saw several others higher on the list. Now the USA is #1 and has 3 times as many new cases as Italy. Soon it will have 2, 3 or 4 times as many cases as any other country.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

The slow to respond UK under Johnson has now replaced the USA at #8 and moving up fast, and Johnson himself is now infected. If fellow Trump clone Bolsonaro has his way, Brazil will become an epicenter too. Meanwhile so far, poor countries at war with refugees are still awaiting a possible cataclysm. They are protected now probably because no one in their right mind wants to visit those places. Ironically it might be humanitarian workers or journalists who bring the virus to those places. Italy was hit hardest because it is a tourist trap (justifiably so) with a heavy elderly population.

I agree on travel restrictions, and although I was opposed strongly to his Mexican border policy, apparently the Mexican government is even slower and more irresponsible than Trump's. So now, as in other countries, we have to close off all borders entirely for a couple of months. That is hard though for those escaping death in their home countries and seeking asylum, being left in Mexico where cartels and kidnapping gangs run rampant. I'm not exactly sure what the sane response to this double bind is now. Certainly a sane president would be jawboning Mexico to ramp up precautions and shutdowns, and then maybe asylum seekers could still go through a process which would include testing for the virus and quarantine if necessary.

[sbarrera]

(03-27-2020, 11:29 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: President Trump's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been highly successful so far.  The US only has 1000 deaths to date, compared to 16,000 so far in Europe, largely due to Trump's prompt action in restricting travel from China, and later from Europe.  Deaths are about as objective as it gets.  In addition, while the US economy is now taking a severe hit, it's not nearly as bad as the EU economy, at least so far.

I was actually opposed to the China travel restrictions at the beginning, but Trump was right and I was wrong.

I expect we'll have to agree to disagree on this.  From my side, it looks like Trump opponents are just refusing to see anything good about him, so I doubt there's any way to reach agreement on this.

We're behind the curve compared to Italy/Spain, so it's too early to use deaths as a comparison for whether we handled the coronavirus better than they did. And closing the borders isn't enough; we need the social distancing restrictions to slow the spread. Those came from U.S. governors, so I would put the governors in the category of champions in this context, not the President.

If closing the borders has indeed helped, then credit is due to the President. But with his self-aggrandizing, insecure attitude, I cannot see him as a champion.

[David Horn]

(03-27-2020, 11:29 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: President Trump's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been highly successful so far.  The US only has 1000 deaths to date, compared to 16,000 so far in Europe, largely due to Trump's prompt action in restricting travel from China, and later from Europe.  Deaths are about as objective as it gets.  In addition, while the US economy is now taking a severe hit, it's not nearly as bad as the EU economy, at least so far.

I was actually opposed to the China travel restrictions at the beginning, but Trump was right and I was wrong.

I expect we'll have to agree to disagree on this.  From my side, it looks like Trump opponents are just refusing to see anything good about him, so I doubt there's any way to reach agreement on this.

We're weeks behind the EU on the COVID-19 timeline, so assume nothing.  On the other hand, we know for certain that:

• Trump vacated the Pandemic Planning Group assigned to , you know, actually plan for stuff like this
  
• He pooh-pooh'd everything about the crisis until it was fully deniable, then
  
• He refused to act, leaving it all to the private sector and the states.
  

It's hard to find anything good there.  It's easy to find criminal negligence.

[David Horn]

Other than Cuomo in NY, I haven't seen any leader actually lead … or even try to. So far, Biden is a no show, and may now be an election afterthought. We may get President Orange One for the full 8 years.

[Eric the Green]

(03-29-2020, 03:02 PM)David Horn Wrote: Other than Cuomo in NY, I haven't seen any leader actually lead … or even try to.  So far, Biden is a no show, and may now be an election afterthought.  We may get President Orange One for the full 8 years.

I wouldn't give up on him for not showing up much yet. He has no direct responsible position to handle yet, like the governor of a major epicenter of the virus (Cuomo) does.

[Eric the Green]

(03-29-2020, 02:59 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(03-27-2020, 11:29 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: President Trump's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has been highly successful so far.  The US only has 1000 deaths to date, compared to 16,000 so far in Europe, largely due to Trump's prompt action in restricting travel from China, and later from Europe.  Deaths are about as objective as it gets.  In addition, while the US economy is now taking a severe hit, it's not nearly as bad as the EU economy, at least so far.

I was actually opposed to the China travel restrictions at the beginning, but Trump was right and I was wrong.

I expect we'll have to agree to disagree on this.  From my side, it looks like Trump opponents are just refusing to see anything good about him, so I doubt there's any way to reach agreement on this.

We're weeks behind the EU on the COVID-19 timeline, so assume nothing.  On the other hand, we know for certain that:

• Trump vacated the Pandemic Planning Group assigned to , you know, actually plan for stuff like this
  
• He pooh-pooh'd everything about the crisis until it was fully deniable, then
  
• He refused to act, leaving it all to the private sector and the states.
  

It's hard to find anything good there.  It's easy to find criminal negligence.

Will the people recognize reality? So far, no sign of this.

[David Horn]

(03-29-2020, 04:29 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(03-29-2020, 03:02 PM)David Horn Wrote: Other than Cuomo in NY, I haven't seen any leader actually lead … or even try to.  So far, Biden is a no show, and may now be an election afterthought.  We may get President Orange One for the full 8 years.

I wouldn't give up on him for not showing up much yet. He has no direct responsible position to handle yet, like the governor of a major epicenter of the virus (Cuomo) does.

There needs to be an active response to Trump TV: The Briefing.  Every night he gets hours of free exposure, and much of it isn't COVID-19 related.  If the media intend to cover what is clearly a daily Trump rally (sans audience), then the Democrats should ask for time to respond.  A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows this parody of responsibility still playing daily on November 3rd.

Isn't one corrupted election enough for this guy?  Must it always be a GOP-favored ploy?

[sbarrera]

(03-30-2020, 12:25 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(03-29-2020, 04:29 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(03-29-2020, 03:02 PM)David Horn Wrote: Other than Cuomo in NY, I haven't seen any leader actually lead … or even try to.  So far, Biden is a no show, and may now be an election afterthought.  We may get President Orange One for the full 8 years.

I wouldn't give up on him for not showing up much yet. He has no direct responsible position to handle yet, like the governor of a major epicenter of the virus (Cuomo) does.

There needs to be an active response to Trump TV: The Briefing.  Every night he gets hours of free exposure, and much of it isn't COVID-19 related.  If the media intend to cover what is clearly a daily Trump rally (sans audience), then the Democrats should ask for time to respond.  A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows this parody of responsibility still playing daily on November 3rd.

Isn't one corrupted election enough for this guy?  Must it always be a GOP-favored ploy?

There's always watching the governors' press conferences as an antidote! They tend to be shorter and much more to the point.

[Bob Butler 54]

(03-29-2020, 03:02 PM)David Horn Wrote: Other than Cuomo in NY, I haven't seen any leader actually lead … or even try to.  So far, Biden is a no show, and may now be an election afterthought.  We may get President Orange One for the full 8 years.

A few of the county health directors near San Francisco shut first their area down and then all of California. They responded quickly and decisively as one could ask. But I can see your complaint.

[Bob Butler 54]

(03-29-2020, 04:30 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Will the people recognize reality? So far, no sign of this.

The small government low taxes ignore the science mind set is very hard to shake. Covid-19 is almost designed to do it, in it’s effects and in its timing. There is time enough before the election for those who want to live and die by that mind set to demonstrate it. By now even some Republican governors have jumped on the isolation bandwagon. We’ll see if it weakens the Republican base enough.