3.8.20: Coronavirus Scaring Voters Straight, in the Face of Anti-Leadership

On the one hand, you can be glad that "Meet The Press" had Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Disease, deliver real answers on what to do and expect regarding the spread of the Coronavirus. On the other, none of it was particularly good.

He explained that as they get a better sense of the virus, what they're seeing is not good. The two strategies at this point are mitigation and containment, the latter of which doesn't seem to be working so well. Candidly, he said that if you're elderly with an underlying condition, you may want to think twice about getting on a plane or long contained travel such as cruise ship, of course.

Dr. Fauci did say that the virus may just burn itself, like SARS, but right now there is no determining that so his main concern is community spread because a vaccine is a way off and we're not ready for survey testing or even doctor to patient testing,which is being ramped up.

And we need to ramp things up...

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In the meantime, Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) has declared a state of emergency in his state to coordinate all the state agencies and get more ready access to funds through the Maryland Legislature if necessary.

Governor Hogan also explained that a concern for all the states' governors is the ramping up effort, but that Vice-president Pence has been doing a good job of coordinating and getting everyone on the same page. Sure that's good, but it's in spite of the president's stupid and unhelpful statements. Mr. Hogan said that politics should be left out of it and that the president's statements on the Coronavirus aren't what he would say or what he would have like the president to say, but the rest of the team is doing a good job.

The New York Times, Helene Cooper said that the world isn't looking to Trump to lead on this, but what we've come to expect is that the president can't even do it here at home.  Hallie Jackson there is this separation - him from everyone else, to which Chuck Todd responded that we do it naturally now. We have to rely on government agencies doing their best despite Mr. Trump's anti-leadership.

With the stock market losing 10 percent of its value in the last two weeks, the administration, particularly the president, faces a real challenge and questions about its leadership. This is what is scaring voters straight... Straight to Joe Biden.

Voters are deciding enough of the chaos, they want a steady hand leading the country - some calm. This Trump-chaos fatigue puts a drag on Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign because at this time, people don't want revolution as Mr. Sanders terms his movement. In recent interviews, including today's Mr. Sanders has been more subdued because he did not turn out the vote on Super Tuesday. Mr. Sanders has proved like all before that relying on an overwhelming youth vote, especially in a primary, is wishful and flawed thinking.

Mr. Sanders also said that he is fighting both the corporate establishment and the party establishment on his path to the nomination. He explained that the party establishment put pressure on Buttigieg and Klobuchar to drop out, essentially 'falling in line.' The bitter part that he left out is that all those votes went to Mr. Biden.

This leads us to where Senator Warren's supporters will go now that she has withdrawn from the race, a race that as the panel discussed, still is significantly sexist. If Joe Biden wins the nomination, it's difficult no seeing him pick a woman as his vice-presidential running mate. It's long long overdue.


Panel: Matt Bai, The Washington Post; Hallie Jackson, NBC, Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist


A couple more things...
Matt Bai was so right to hammer home the point that the president goes on and on about the 'deep state.' But as Mr. Bai pointed out, this is the government, the civil servants that we rely on to get things done and to keep the population safe. He thinks there is a looming political cost for this. Maybe not directly, but it speaks to the larger more existential problem of trust, which wouldn't be a problem if the president didn't constantly bash the government that he leads.

SxSW in Austin, TX was cancelled this year, the first time in 35 years. That's an economic hit to the tune of $350 million for the city. Stay tuned for even more big hits.