Each candidate has a ‘C word’

In the past few days, two “C” issues have impacted the Presidential race, with less than seven weeks to go.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden has seized on Covid as President Donald J. Trump’s Achilles heel. Only about one-third of Americans approve of his performance on that issue and he shot himself in the foot with his candid admission to Bob Woodward that he underplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus attack.

For his part, Trump’s weaponized Crime as his battering ram, believing he can make a case that Democrats are soft on law and order.

Covid first. 

Trump decided to talk to Woodward in the arrogant hope/belief that he could sweet talk the reporter into seeing it his way, something that no other president has been able to do. I believe Woodward is fair and accurate and from reading and observing him over the years, believe him to be a political moderate, who comes from a Republican family.

As distinct from his Watergate partner, progressive Carl Bernstein, whose parents were reportedly communists in the early ‘40s, who is habitually describing many Republican presidential scandals as “worse than Watergate.” It’s become a reflex.

One of my Trumpster friends calls Trump “the great exaggerator.” To me, he’s the great prevaricator, given to outright lies and mistatements of facts that he might actually believe are true.

Way back on Feb. 7, while he was poo-poohing Covid-19 and predicting it would miraculously disappear, Trump was recorded by Woodward as saying, “It goes through the air. That’s always tougher than the touch. You don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

More deadly than “strenuous flus.” During the ABC town hall, he asked the world to ignore his words, saying he had taken action to quell the pandemic.

It’s a pretty sad when the president’s best defense is to tell people to ignore what he says. Trump no longer enjoys the benefit of the doubt with fair-minded people, not those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

He gave Woodward almost 20 unsupervised interviews — no staff present to wave him off as he waded into rhetorical quicksand, no Kayleigh McEnany to tell Woodward he had not just heard what he heard.

Trump’s combination of arrogance and vanity led him into Woodword’s waiting arms.

For the record, I think subjects of books should cooperate with reporters of good reputation. It is better to have an opportunity to get your side on the record than to concede the terrain to your detractors. But you set strict ground rules, and time limits, and stick to them. King Trump decided to joust with Sir Woodward without a shield and got knocked to the ground.

At this moment, it looks like Covid could claim his presidency, along with more than 200,000 American lives.

On the other hand, Trump paints a portrait of an America in flames if it elects “radical socialist” Biden, who is neither. That was Bernie Sanders and Biden beat him. Last time Berners bolted because they hated Hillary. They have no excuse this time and Bernie has said to his peeps, basically, you must vote for Biden no matter what. Stop Trump!

Biden has tried to seize the “law and order” issue from Trump by saying riots, such as those in Portland for three straight months, are “Trump’s America.”

Wow.

Americans are not nearly as well informed as they should be, but how many voters do not know that Portland is ruled by a lame Democratic mayor — who was booed and jeered by the mob when he went out to express solidarity with them — and a Democratic governor who spurns Trump’s offers to send in the feds, even if those offers are self-serving.

When faced with riots (not peaceful marches) or civil disobedience every Democratic mayor (except Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms) folded like a pup tent.

Here in Philadelphia, our spineless Democratic mayor threatens illegal trespassers on the Parkway but otherwise fuddles his duddle. They rule, he drools.

Philly and other Democratic cities have George Soros-funded district attorneys who won’t enforce the law.

You think no one notices? Democrats are notoriously sanguine about violence committed in the name of social justice — until it comes to their block. The morons on the Minneapolis City Council who voted to disband the police force now are complaining that crime is spurting. Liberal logic at work.

The insurance bill for the George Floyd riots, looting, and arson — including Center City — is $2 billion, an all time record.

Who cares?, some say. Yeah! Make the insurance companies pay! 

They will, and then will raise your insurance rates to recoup their losses.

That’s how it works in the real world.

Trump knows he’s weak in the suburbs and is trying to scare them into thinking the riots are coming to them next.

They’re not, but can Biden make them believe the Democrats have their back?

Like Trump protecting us from Covid, that’s a tough sell.