Why Joe Waits

Hey Joe, what are you waiting for? I write this out of a modest understanding of how electoral politics works. I realize, however, that striking too soon may be counter-productive. I once ran for mayor of my Missouri city. The election was scheduled for April, and I launched my campaign right after Christmas. I was by far the best known of any of the potential candidates, having chaired the commission elected to redraft our city charter, and being an elected member of the city council. My BAYER ASPRIN yard signs mushroomed all over town, and my billboards adorned the highways. Alas, by March the winter snows had vandalized both. While my signs were in shambles,I my opponent, who had waited, now produced fresh appealing signs and ads. While this failure in timing may not have been the only reason for my defeat, it didn’t help.

Perhaps Joe, you are savvy enough to be waiting for just the right moment. I hope so. In the meantime, many of your supporters are chafing at the bit wondering about the delay.

While Trump will no doubt do well when he is finally able to resume his rallies, the moment he is forced to face you before a national audience, he will be in trouble. But Joe, you must be far more aggressive than you were in your debates with Bernie.

It is clear that the election will focus on how Trump has handled the pandemic. At this point I believe you need to take off the gloves and tell the truth, unveiling Trump’s enormous catalogue of lies and misrepresentations.

Just for starters, Trump brags in every performance about how when he came into the oval office he was confronted with empty shelves void of essential medical supplies including ventilators and surgical masks. Joe, you just need the statistics on just what was in our medical storehouse. A couple of graphic charts should do the trick. Even if Trump’s false claims had been accurate, he had three years to replenish the shelves. But what did he do? NOTHING. And in January when he was notified every day of the danger, he called the whole thing a hoax, and told the country that it was harmless and would quickly disappear. He had previously disbanded the White House group commissioned to prepare for such an eventuality. That was before a hundred thousand American deaths. His only response has been to blame China, Obama, the Democrats, CNN and the World Health Organization.
“Don’t blame me ,
Don’t blame me,
Blame the man behind the tree.”
And that is just one illustration of how Trump has mishandled the pandemic. Since the onslaught of the virus his almost total concern has focused on touting the roaring personal success of his presidency—the best in the nation’s history---so he would have us believe So while everyone is encouraged to wear a mask he thinks a mask would make him look weak before the world’s leaders or the press. Instead, he was took a drug that has never proved effective in attacking the virus.

While grief had overcome tens of thousands of American families, his passion had rested on self-congratulations without a word of support to the grieving. In the meantime he continues to admit that while additional deaths might be the price of opening the nation, they are modest compared to the suicides and drug addiction that would result in continuing the hesitant economic re-openings. His personal image, not leadership, reveals his real concern.

So Joe, I trust that you may be holding your fire until you see the whites of his eyes. In the meantime your task seems to be selecting the right running mate and being ready with an overwhelming arsenal that is locked and loaded, so when the time is right Trump will be defeated. Joe, America is counting on you.