Trump could benefit from common-sense middle ground on COVID: Goodwin

Elections are all about contrasts and, when it comes to Biden vs. Trump, the contrasts are plentiful and sharp. On taxes, the economy, Iran, race relations, the environment — the candidates don’t just disagree, they are close to polar opposites.

There is also a chasm between them on the coronavirus. Their different approaches sometimes make it seem as if they are talking about different diseases.

Biden, reflecting the left’s near-religious belief in masks, is almost always seen wearing one and has, on and off again, said he would support a national mandate. He is also on record as favoring even more government-ordered shutdowns to stop the spread.

Asked by ABC in late August if he would impose a national economic timeout to head off a new wave of infection, he replied: “I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists.”

Of course, he never says which scientists, but that’s for another day.

President Trump, on the other hand, was reluctant for months to wear a mask or endorse them, though that is changing since he and members of his White House team became infected. And although he early on supported stay-at-home orders, for months he’s been pushing governors to open the country up, arguing that job losses, domestic violence and mental illness are making the cure worse than the disease.

Given the importance of the virus to voters, I see political gold for the first candidate who lays claim to a common-sense center. Trump is uniquely positioned to do that.

Uniquely because he is president — and because he is seeing the disease up close and personal. He also has an incentive in that taking a more centrist position might help him cut into Biden’s lead on the issue and the former veep’s lead in the race itself.

So far, however, the president seems to be banking on the notion that his experience with COVID, especially his quick exit from the hospital, validates his approach.

“Don’t let it dominate. Don’t let it take over your lives. Don’t let that happen,” he said in a video Monday night after being released from Walter Reed Medical Center.

To be sure, the president urged Americans to “be careful” and acknowledged there are risks and danger, but the clear emphasis was on countering the Biden approach, which, naturally, is also supported by most of the media.

A telling example came with Trump’s return to the White House. When he climbed the steps to the south portico and stood there as Marine One lifted off, he removed his face mask, which caused a meltdown at CNN.

“Take it off, please. Don’t even put it on the screen, please take it off. Because that’s gonna kill people!” anchor John Berman said Tuesday morning as the event was replayed.

Cancel culture at work.

Such hysterical reactions help explain why aides insist the president is “projecting strength” and leadership, and that is certainly true compared to Biden’s basement strategy.

The problem is that Trump’s approach has not been well received by the public at large and accounts for a significant portion of Biden’s lead in the polls. Even the fact that Trump contracted the disease didn’t get him a sympathy bump.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Sunday found that 65 percent of respondents, including half of the Republicans surveyed, agreed that “if President Trump had taken coronavirus more seriously, he probably would not have been infected.”

Only 34 percent said they thought that Trump has been honest about the virus and 57 percent disapproved of Trump’s response to
the pandemic overall.

Other surveys, such as a large one by Gallup, found that by 2-1, most Americans believe the better advice for even healthy people is that they stay home instead of returning to their normal lives. That lopsided finding has stayed fairly consistent since June.

With less than a month to go in the campaign, it is almost certainly too late for the president to change many minds on the topic, especially as new cases surge in some areas, including parts of New York City. Still, with Biden holding narrow leads in most swing states, a new approach from the president certainly holds the potential to make a difference in key spots.

A good start would be to talk to the public honestly about his personal experience. What did the symptoms feel like physically, and what were the effects on his mind and emotions? Did he fear dying? Did he talk to Melania, others in his family or circle of friends about his experience?

In getting personal, Trump would be effectively establishing a bond with the 7 million other Americans who have survived the disease and sympathy for the families of the 210,000 who perished. Who knows, a dash of humility might even ­surface.

While I realize that Trump is not likely to say anything that could be construed as showing weakness, it is important that he candidly share his personal experience. Rarely if ever have we heard a president describe a serious health event that so many others also have experienced, making this an opportunity to display leadership in a unique and distinctly Trumpian way.

In truth, there might be no political payoff, but he won’t know unless he tries. According to near-unanimous poll results, Trump must find a way to convince some voters to see the election as a choice between him and Biden and not just a referendum on him.

Besides, with the left mostly celebrating the president’s illness and many actually wishing for his death, it would be a resurrection of sorts if he were able to turn the whole episode into a political positive.
That, too, would be distinctly Trumpian.

Principal principles

Reader Harold Theurer wonders what took city principals so long, writing: “Principals voted ‘no confidence’ with respect to Mayor 17% and his sidekick chancellor, Richard Carranza, for the way they handled school openings. They claim the schools are a dangerous environment in which to educate due to Covid.

“But why didn’t the same principals think that eliminating discipline in the form of suspension for students who verbally and physically abuse teachers was also dangerous when it was made by the same duo? Selective outrage?”

Times trifecta

All the narratives fit to print. From the New York Times: “Rising temperatures are widening the racial achievement gap in United States schools, new research suggests, offering the latest evidence that the burdens of climate change fall disproportionately on people of color.

“In a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior, researchers found that students performed worse on standardized tests for every additional day of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, even after controlling for other factors. Those effects held across 58 countries, suggesting a fundamental link between heat exposure and reduced learning.

“But when the researchers looked specifically at the United States . . . they found something surprising: The detrimental impact of heat seemed to affect only Black and Hispanic students.”