Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

The Left's Hate
 
Anytime I think the left's hate can't get any worse, I am proven wrong.  The left and its media allies are now doing everything possible to exploit the coronoavirus.  They are attempting to stoke panic and they are promoting the baseless narrative that the president has failed to take appropriate steps.
 
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer kicked off the attack yesterday on the Senate floor.  He declared that the administration had been "caught flat-footed" with "no plan to deal with the coronavirus" and "seemingly no urgency to develop one."
 
I have no idea what alternative reality Schumer is living in.  Here are the facts: 

  • Out of 80,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, 77,000 are in China.
  • The White House announced two days ago that it is seeking $2.5 billion in emergency spending to deal with the coronavirus.
  • Last month, the administration declared a national health emergency.  It suspended flights to China and barred any foreign national who had traveled through China from entering the U.S.
  • It is nothing short of a miracle that while countries like Italy, Japan and South Korea are dealing with major outbreaks, we are not. 
  • The U.S. is more connected to the world than most other countries.  America is a major tourist destination.  The swift action of the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has resulted in a total of 57 people that we know of having virus inside the U.S. 
  • Forty-three of those cases were American citizens brought home from the infected cruise ship in Japan.  But that's just 57 people in a country of 330 million.

Is it likely to remain 57 people?  Of course not.  It seems that the coronavirus is like a flu on steroids.  Imagine trying to prevent the yearly flu from arriving here.  We'd have to build a wall around the entire country and ban all ships and planes, shutting down all travel.  In short, it would be virtually impossible.
 
We will have more cases of coronavirus.  We have excellent healthcare and medical research institutions.  So I am reasonably optimistic that we will be able to limit the impact.  But we don't know for sure. 
 
Of course, everyone is hoping we will limit this.  Whoops.  I have to correct that. 
 
Unfortunately, I have no doubt that many in the fevered swamps of the left -- the same folks who tried to blame George W. Bush for Hurricane Katrina and Trump for the devastation Hurricane Maria caused in Puerto Rico -- are hoping for the worst now.  That is beyond disgusting.
 
And here's a final point to keep mind:  It wasn't that long ago when the left accused President Trump of being a racist for trying to stop hundreds of thousands of people from crossing our southern border, including many who were sick and a surge of Chinese nationals.  If anyone is to blame for leaving our country exposed, it is the radical left.
 
 
 
Don't Panic
 
Yesterday, CDC officials held another briefing.  They said that they were taking all necessary precautions but added that while the risk remains low, the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. was "inevitable." 
 
The talking heads on CNBC reacted by setting their hair on fire.  The financial markets crashed again.  There is no reason for this panic. 
 
We will learn more at 6:00 PM when President Trump holds a press conference with CDC officials. 
 
 
 
About That Debate. . .
 
Politico interviewed more than a dozen political insiders and experts regarding last night's debate in Charleston, South Carolina, and got feedback like this:
 
"The loser Tuesday was . . . any hope for sensible, coherent debates."
 
"What a mess.  It was exhausting."
 
"The Charleston debate was . . . an irritating mess. . . Any [voters] who watched this debate to make up their minds about whom to vote for might wish there were a category on their ballot labeled 'None of the These Candidates.'"
 
"Let's first establish the debate's losers, to get it out the way: the CBS moderators."
 
"The moderating was not strong; there was a lot of shouting and cross-talk; it was unpleasant to behold."
 
"The last debate before Super Tuesday sounded like a fork caught in a blender -- all smashing and crashing noise with no substance at all."
 
"That debate was a downer.  Nobody won, but somehow all of us at home lost.  That's two hours of our lives we'll never get back."
 
MSNBC's left-wing "Morning Joe" co-hosts agreed, calling the debate a "wreck," "a mess" and "a slugfest that spun wildly out of control."