Finally, some action. That’s the bottom line of Friday’s developments from the Rose Garden remarks.
President Trump is at his best playing MC for the remarkable array of those who are standing up — CEOs and public-sector experts like Deborah Birx and Tony Fauci. He should stick with that, rather than droning away offering self-justifications. When he was introducing a cavalcade of folks explaining how the nation will rally to get this crisis under control, the Dow soared.
Not that the Dow Jones is the barometer of public confidence, but it’s certainly one of them. And the fact that it rose roughly 1,000 points during the Rose Garden remarks is a clear sign Team Trump is finding its feet in this utterly unprecedented situation.
Critics, including the pretty obstreperous White House press corps, can find their gripes — though they mostly look ridiculous picking nits and playing “gotcha” games. But the fundamental fact is that the nation is rallying in this mess.
We are hunkering down, doing the “social distancing” thing, to “flatten the curve” so the health care system isn’t overwhelmed and the people who need help can get it. The economy will take a temporary hit, as we do what we can mainly to prevent a wave of deaths among our over-70 loved ones.
Yes, the career professionals at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stuck to outdated testing rules at the start. Trump took his time finding the right note, too. But it’s early stages yet, and America is getting on track, doing what it needs to.
After a bit more give and take, Congress will pass its emergency bill. Governors like New York’s Andrew Cuomo and California’s Gavin Newsom are standing up as leaders, too — putting leadership ahead of rank political games, sharing info and shutting down what needs to close for now.
It’s messy, but that’s our democracy. As ever, it works far better than the alternatives.