First, I decided to read it. As everyone probably knows, I'm not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. I thought that reading the words would lessen the possible impact of my active dislike of the man, and any mistakes in delivery.
OK, let's talk about "foreign virus". I had a feeling that this would stick in the craw of everyone who already believed he's a xenophobic bigot. (I certainly do think he's a xenophobic bigot.) That said, I decided to look up "foreign" in the dictionary. Do you see the definitions there? Especially the third usage seems apt. The president is simply saying that the virus did not originate in the United States. I personally have no problem with the wording here.
Second, the travel ban. I think he's taking extra heat, because of the earlier--and much more infamous, in my view--travel ban that applied to Muslim countries, and Venezuela. A reasonable critique is to say that since the United States already has confirmed cases of the disease, the time for such bans has passed. That's fair, I suppose. Still, I don't think such a restriction is necessarily without foundation. If administration officials want to claim that China was perhaps not honest about the severity of the disease, that would not be an outrageous claim. I do think it's perhaps not helpful to criticize EU officials for their possible oversights when we'll need them. Even so, he's trying to say that infected Chinese nationals came to the EU, and the virus came here as a result. I will say that it could be difficult to acquire the German testing kits, if no EU citizen may travel to the US. Banning Europeans but not travel to and from the UK is utterly incomprehensible. They're right next to each other.
It is a fair critique to wonder why he is boasting about the talent and wisdom of American health officials, when he was ignoring the advice of these same officials for months. Even days ago, the administration was attempting to claim that the media coverage and warnings about the disease were hysterical. It's much worse than the flu, though of course the flu kills tens of thousands each year.
I think the president's advice to us the citizens is of course sound, and fine, as far as it goes. I think it's good to declare a state of emergency, and to authorize as much help for the poor--and some limited aid for businesses--as our leadership deems appropriate.
I would say that the boasting throughout is odd, but this is how our president talks. The substance of American exceptionalism is an almost irrational confidence. This isn't new for us. Indeed, citizens and voters crucified poor President Carter for being honest and realistic.
My overall reaction to the speech itself is that it wasn't a disaster, by any stretch. Much of the problem-solving could be said to be too little, too late, but another saying is, "Better late than never."
OK, let's talk about "foreign virus". I had a feeling that this would stick in the craw of everyone who already believed he's a xenophobic bigot. (I certainly do think he's a xenophobic bigot.) That said, I decided to look up "foreign" in the dictionary. Do you see the definitions there? Especially the third usage seems apt. The president is simply saying that the virus did not originate in the United States. I personally have no problem with the wording here.
Second, the travel ban. I think he's taking extra heat, because of the earlier--and much more infamous, in my view--travel ban that applied to Muslim countries, and Venezuela. A reasonable critique is to say that since the United States already has confirmed cases of the disease, the time for such bans has passed. That's fair, I suppose. Still, I don't think such a restriction is necessarily without foundation. If administration officials want to claim that China was perhaps not honest about the severity of the disease, that would not be an outrageous claim. I do think it's perhaps not helpful to criticize EU officials for their possible oversights when we'll need them. Even so, he's trying to say that infected Chinese nationals came to the EU, and the virus came here as a result. I will say that it could be difficult to acquire the German testing kits, if no EU citizen may travel to the US. Banning Europeans but not travel to and from the UK is utterly incomprehensible. They're right next to each other.
It is a fair critique to wonder why he is boasting about the talent and wisdom of American health officials, when he was ignoring the advice of these same officials for months. Even days ago, the administration was attempting to claim that the media coverage and warnings about the disease were hysterical. It's much worse than the flu, though of course the flu kills tens of thousands each year.
I think the president's advice to us the citizens is of course sound, and fine, as far as it goes. I think it's good to declare a state of emergency, and to authorize as much help for the poor--and some limited aid for businesses--as our leadership deems appropriate.
I would say that the boasting throughout is odd, but this is how our president talks. The substance of American exceptionalism is an almost irrational confidence. This isn't new for us. Indeed, citizens and voters crucified poor President Carter for being honest and realistic.
My overall reaction to the speech itself is that it wasn't a disaster, by any stretch. Much of the problem-solving could be said to be too little, too late, but another saying is, "Better late than never."
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