Trump's Ostrich Strategy

Death Of A Salesman by Nancy Ohanian

Coke freak, and on-again, off-again alcoholic, as well as Trump's bumbling chair of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow is no doctor... but he's had plenty of experience with doctors. In 1994 Kudlow was fired from Bear Stearns for an out-of-control cocaine problem and eventually (1995) entered a twelve-step program to deal with his addictions to both cocaine and alcohol but eventually decided to (not) deal with his illness by converting to Catholicism. He seems to have buried in the collective memory hole an incident at CNBC, where he was an anchor, of being "suspended" for more drug abuse.

Anyway, on Monday morning the man who has been wrong about virtually everything in his entire career went on CNBC to push back against predictions of a second spike-- let alone a second wave-- of coronavirus, which is standard Trump Regime palaver. "There is no second wave coming. It’s just hot spots. They send in CDC teams, we’ve got the testing procedures, we’ve got the diagnostics, we’ve got the PPE. And so I really think it’s a pretty good situation." The man may not be high, but he's out of his gourd. The U.S. daily rate of new cases is higher than ever-- over 30,000 a day now-- and the U.S. leads the world in new cases and in deaths. With the exception of a terribly governed California, many of the second spike states are the ones with Trumpist governors who agree with him that burying your head in the sand will make the pandemic disappear. States getting worse-- by new cases on Saturday and ---> Sunday and ---> today:

• California +3,589 ---> +5,523 ---> 6,503
• Florida +3,494 ---> +2,926 ---> 3,286
• Texas +3,125 ---> +5,112 ---> 5,370
• Arizona +2,592 ---> +2,196 ---> 3,593
• North Carolina +1,321 ---> +802 ---> 835
• South Carolina +907 ---> +1,008 ---> 912
• Georgia +892 ---> +1,227 ---> 1,750

There are also dangerous and growing daily upticks in Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri and Utah. I guess the Trump Regime is celebrating the news by scaling back its temperature checks of journalists and other visitors to the White House. On the other hand, CNN reported that Trump, badly burned by his failed rally in Tulsa, may be putting the brakes on more rallies for now. Kevin Liptak noted that "Swaths of empty blue seats and a vacant overflow venue in Oklahoma have led President Donald Trump's aides to begin debating what his signature campaign rallies will look like going forward, people familiar with the matter say. Ahead of the President's visit on Saturday to Tulsa, there had been tentative plans to announce another rally for the near future, perhaps as early as the next two weeks. Now, it remains unclear when-- and how-- Trump will move forward with his flagship political events. Some advisers suggested it could be weeks or even months before Trump attempts another rally, though as of Monday morning no decisions had been made on how to proceed."

Once viewed as a way to spring Trump's campaign into a new phase-- and improve the mood of a mostly homebound President-- the Tulsa event instead devolved into what many of Trump's aides acknowledge was an unfortunate mistake that distilled the President's political woes five months before the general election.

Pictures of a half-full arena bore no resemblance to the sea of people Trump had been expecting and publicly predicting-- a mistake, aides later said, because it raised expectations unrealistically.

Instead of delivering the fresh new rebuke on his rival Joe Biden that his campaign advisers were hoping for, Trump delivered a disjointed speech that seemed designed to entertain rather than drive votes to an audience that appeared sparse and subdued from his vantage point.

Instead of departing Tulsa with a boost, Trump appeared deflated as he returned to the White House with his tie hanging loose around his neck.

As coverage of the event focused on its shortcomings on Sunday, Trump only grew more upset. He was seething and spent the day lashing out at staff, several sources said. Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale, who was well aware Trump would be upset by the turnout, hasn't been the only target of Trump's ire. Instead, sources predicted anyone-- White House officials included-- could be fired over what happened.

The ultimate outcome, multiple people close to the President predicted, depends on how long the story of the rally's sparse attendance stays in the headlines.

By Monday morning, a debate had commenced over how to proceed-- and whether the massive rallies that are the President's political stock-in-trade are feasible or wise as he seeks to turn around a flagging reelection effort.

Trump's campaign has blamed the lackluster turnout on protesters who scared away supporters or blocked them from entering, though CNN teams on the ground in Tulsa did not witness blocked entrances and reported heavy law enforcement presence in the secure area surrounding the Bank of Oklahoma Center.

Ultimately, just fewer than 6,200 people attended the rally, according to the Tulsa Fire Department. Plans for an overflow speech were canceled as fewer than 25 people gathered in the area it was meant to occur. Trump once predicted 20,000 people in the area with an additional 40,000 outside.

...[O]fficials acknowledged that Tulsa was a sign even Trump's supporters remain wary of large crowds as coronavirus continues to spread, a reality that may force his campaign to book smaller venues for greatly reduced audiences.