Somehow, the president keeps misreading the politics of the pandemic

[Zorro]

Americans support stronger efforts to control the outbreak — and relatedly see Biden as better able to handle it.

Speaking from the White House on Thursday, President Trump attempted to chastise his reelection opponent’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic.

“To Joe, I would say: Stop playing politics with a virus. Too serious,” Trump said, reading from his prepared remarks. “Partisan politics has no place here.”

A few minutes earlier, Trump’s views of using the outbreak as a political tool were somewhat different.

“Today, we saw Joe Biden continue to politicize a pandemic and to show his appalling lack of respect for the American people. That’s what it is,” he said. “At every turn, Biden has been wrong about the virus, ignoring the scientific evidence and putting left-wing politics before facts and evidence.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/14/somehow-president-keeps-misreading-politics-pandemic/

[zentrum]

1. Can never get my jaw

...off the ground.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. That's some weapons-grade projection.

[Native]

5. I was just thinking the same thing. It really is amazing, isn't it?

[AZ8theist]

3. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Yeah, right, it's BIDEN NOT FOLLOWING SCIENCE!!!! WHAT AN IMBECILIC ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!

YOU FUCKING MORON, DO YOU THINK NOBODY REMEMBERS THIS?????????????????????

[regnaD kciN]

4. "Misreading the politics"...?

Not sure I agree. He’s misreading the basic scientific facts, not to mention simple common sense, but politics? If that were the case, you’d have seen his approval rating tank – when, in fact, it’s stayed in pretty much the same narrow band as it was in before the pandemic. And what he’s doing, like it or not, taps very deeply into a strong current of yearning for “normalcy.” People want the pandemic to be over (look at how many balk at wearing masks, for example), and will give their devotion to those who assure them that, essentially, it is over in terms of being a direct threat to them, and that “the only thing we have to fear is liberal fearmongering.”

The fact is, I think everyone’s opinion of Trump was “baked in” long ago. Those who love him continue to do so, and will adjust their view of reality to fit their idealization of him. Those who hate him will continue to hate him…and there’s really very little middle ground. What Trump is counting on right now is that the large minority in his camp will be more strongly motivated to turn out in November than the small majority that oppose him (aided by a heapin’ helpin’ of voter suppression, of course). And we really won’t know for almost three months whether that bet pays off.

[Harker]

6. Trumpsky could misread a comic book.

Or a bar graph.

[czarjak]

7. If you can't read, you can't misread.