Biden: Leadership in the Time of Pandemic

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s best seller Leadership in Turbulent Times provides instructive lessons on what the nation should expect from leaders in times of crisis. And make no mistake about it, we are in a time of crisis.

Reviewing Donald Trump’s track record in dealing with these difficult times gives ample reason why the New York Times regarded his response to the Coronavirus pandemic as, “perhaps one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in generations.”

In stating that Trump is “A President unfit for a pandemic,” The Boston Globe editorial staff stated: “Catastrophic decisions in the White House have doomed the world’s richest country to a season of untold suffering. As the American public braces itself for the worst of this crisis, it’s worth remembering that the reach of the virus here is not attributable to an act of God or a foreign invasion, but a colossal failure of leadership.”

Trump’s Leadership Failure Is Endless

• failure to acknowledge the very existence of the pandemic early on when he learned of it from his national security advisors
• failure to take any action to deal with the virus while the pandemic took root in our society 
• persistent denials of the seriousness of the pandemic — “it will go away like a miracle… it will just disappear,” a theme that he continues to reiterate at this late date
• refusal to issue stay-at-home guidelines, failing to set up a national testing operation and his fumbling of the production of personal protective equipment
• false claims that testing is and was available to all who required it and the false claim that the US testing program was the best in the world
• most recently his ludicrous statement that “testing makes us look bad”
• his refusal to wear a face mask until recently leading large sectors of the population to follow his lead and who still, refuse to wear them
• his overt public repudiation and denigration of his medical advisors, most notably Dr Fauci, regarded with great esteem by his peers and the public, and who, incidentally, has been omitted from the most recent coronavirus briefings, the first attended by the President in more than a month
• placing the responsibility for a pandemic program in the hands of State government, rather than recognizing the responsibility of the Federal government for an effective program
• transferring CDC’s vital data collection function to the White House for the obvious purpose of giving Trump the opportunity to manipulate the number of sick and deaths to make the data look less disastrous
• and finally, the statement by Secretary DeVos that children are “stoppers,” a dangerous misrepresentation, since recent studies indicate that they are as likely to be infected as adults.

All of this has prompted the Boston Globe to opine that “Trump has blood on his hands … because the suffering and death coming was preventable.”

A Vote For Joe Biden is a Vote For Leadership

During this growing health crisis, this country desperately need leadership. Joe Biden is the person perfectly suited to provide it.  He has the leadership experience, the emotional stability, and the know-how to lead us out of this crisis.  We need a decisive public health response to curb the spread of the disease and provide treatment to those in need—as well as a decisive economic response that delivers real relief to American workers, families, and small businesses, and protects the economy as a whole.  Joe Biden has set forth in detail a sensible program to take America out of the disaster that Trump has caused and lead America back to health. https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/