Crisis

At some point, in any U.S. President’s term of office there will be a crisis that will demand total skill in governing on the part of the President, his cabinet, and his advisors.  It will be the manner and degree in which a President is able to deal with the crisis that will determine just how effective this President is when it comes to competence and skill in governing.  In the case of George W. Bush, his crisis was the World Trade, September 11 bombing.  Bush was able to work to unite the country to deal with this crisis.  President Obama came into office during the second worst economic recession in the nation’s history.  Obama quickly turned the recession into a recovery that continued for the remaining seven years of his two terms in office.  Today, we are unfortunately watching President Trump total out of his element and unable to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic or the accompanying economic crisis caused, in part, by attempts to control the spread of the virus.  The Trump voters made a decision in the 2016 election that put him in office that the country did not need a president with political experience.  The Trump voters, susceptible to the promises of a con man that his supposed business acumen would better serve the country than the political experience of his competitor for the office of President.  Over the nine months the country has witnessed a President’s and Republican Senate’s total incompetence and inability to begin to successfully deal with either the pandemic crisis or the accompanying economic crisis. There can be no question that if elected, Joe Biden will step into the Oval Office facing the duel crisis of pandemic and recession and if Joe Biden is able to defeat Donald Trump and become the next President America will be witness to the advantages of political experience and be able to put to rest the thinking that political experience is a bad thing rather than an asset.  It is a much simpler task to govern when things are good.  Anyone can look competent and able when wages are growing, unemployment is declining, and the stock market is going through the ceiling.  It is only when faced with nation-wide problems that the skill or lack thereof becomes readily apparent.  The true test of government is not how those in power govern during good times but how those in power are able to manage and govern during times of crisis.  Trump is facing those challenges and has, so far, failed to meet them.  Only a fool would give him the opportunity to continue his incompetence and lack of ability to govern.