Biden's teachable moment could bring Democrats full circle on COVID-19

W. James Antle III

July 23, 11:04 AM July 23, 11:04 AM

Just as only Nixon could go to China, only President Joe Biden could end maximum COVID-19 caution as the default Democratic position.

Biden was elected thanks to the pandemic. Voters whose top issue was the coronavirus broke for Biden in 2020 by 66 percentage points. Those who said it was more important to contain the virus than reopen the economy went for Biden by 60. Biden was able to keep a low profile on the campaign trail and minimize gaffes while much of the country was shut down.

COVID-19 ended the period of low unemployment that was central to former President Donald Trump’s case for a second term. Public support for Trump’s management of the outbreak collapsed. Pandemic-related voting protocols proved helpful to Democratic turnout.

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Biden’s COVID response is among the last issues on which his approval rating is on average greater than the percentage who disapprove. The latest FiveThirtyEight polling average finds that 48.2% approve to 42.3%. His overall job approval in the same average is just 37.9%.

Only by contracting COVID-19 himself, however, could the 79-year-old president put an end to his administration’s waffling on whether the pandemic requires a heightened state of emergency or public life should return to normal.

Barring a massive surge in deaths or the emergence of a new variant that exceeds the lethality of past ones, it will be extremely difficult for the White House to walk back its messaging that a president who will turn 80 later this year testing positive for for COVID is an event to be accepted with equanimity.

"It's not a failure. It's not a moral failure,” Biden’s COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha said of the boss catching this ailment while speaking to reporters at a White House briefing on Friday. “Look, it's a very contagious virus.”

Where did Biden, who recently returned from a major overseas trip and had just been in close proximity to three senators as well as the governor of Rhode Island, get COVID? "I don't think that matters," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday. "I think what matters is that we prepared for this moment."

"We all knew there would come a time when by being out there and doing his job as president, which means engaging with the public and engaging with constituents, engaging with members of the House and all these people, that sooner or later, like a lot of Americans, he would get COVID," White House chief of staff Ron Klain remarked on MSNBC. He also said he hoped Biden’s diagnosis would be a “teachable moment” for the country.

“Folks, I'm doing great,” Biden tweeted, as the White House played up every task he performed and each plate he cleaned. “Thanks for your concern.”

Asked whether the ill president should, you know, get some rest, Jha told a reporter that “as a physician I will always recommend rest but he is doing the work of the American people.” The doctor, who does not actually treat Biden, corrected himself on the subject on Thursday: “He’s resting comfortably…no, no… he’s working comfortably.”

Not everyone is happy about these developments. “The French philosopher Joseph de Maistre once said that every country gets the government it deserves,” wrote journalist Maggie Koerth. “Likewise, perhaps every American president gets the COVID-19 infection he deserves.”

“If the overarching theme of Trump’s approach to COVID was to shut his eyes and hope the pandemic couldn’t see him if he couldn’t see it, the overarching theme of Biden’s approach has been to frame a collective disaster as just another matter of personal responsibility,” she added. And the double-vaxxed, double boosted personally responsible commander-in-chief got the bloody virus anyway.

Much has changed since Trump got COVID, not least the prevalence of vaccines and available effective treatments. His approach to his own infection, much less public policy on the issue, left a lot to be desired. But we have come a long way from every Republican case being the subject of mockery and likely the result of some “super spreader” event to getting COVID not being a moral failure.

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The turning point may have been when public figures older and more cautious than Biden, from Dr. Anthony Fauci to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), tested positive.

If all goes well, Biden may mark the point at which it is impossible to turn back. A teachable moment, indeed.