[Farm93]

If this leader demanded to be given credit for economic growth and stock market performance, areas where he should know he had very little direct control, then he should have expected to get most of the credit/blame if members of his executive branch team stumble on pandemic management.

I think he/they fully well know that. That is why they have desperately tried to spin this whole thing the entire time to prove it wasn't his fault. The problem for them is that it doesn't matter if his team stumbled or not. He will get the blame, period. It is almost poetic justice that he will be defeated not for the horrible job he did on many fronts, but rather by something that actually was beyond his control.

I was being kind when saying his staff has stumbled.   The CDC is under his authority and it was possible with a better set of advisors the CDC could have saved a lot of lives by accepting the WHO tests, not giving away some of our PPE supplies to other countries in early 2020, etc.  However, a lot of those mistakes were made by people that who were either related to Trump, married to someone related to Trump or very loyal to Trump.   The situation required more people with relevant government experience.   They might not have done better, but they couldn't have done much worse.  The stumbling was the likely outcome if the administration was tested by something not influenced by POTUS tweets.

I have been encouraged by a few senior Republican leaders finally telling everyone to wear masks over the last couple of days.   My guess is now that the primaries are over they know they can safely pivot to the middle that wants to see people reference science and medicine.   They can do that now because the know they will not see tweets from POTUS instructing voters to support the other candidate.

[Farm93]

If this leader demanded to be given credit for economic growth and stock market performance, areas where he should know he had very little direct control, then he should have expected to get most of the credit/blame if members of his executive branch team stumble on pandemic management.

I think he/they fully well know that. That is why they have desperately tried to spin this whole thing the entire time to prove it wasn't his fault. The problem for them is that it doesn't matter if his team stumbled or not. He will get the blame, period. It is almost poetic justice that he will be defeated not for the horrible job he did on many fronts, but rather by something that actually was beyond his control.

I was being kind when saying his staff has stumbled.   The CDC is under his authority and it was possible with a better set of advisors the CDC could have saved a lot of lives by accepting the WHO tests, not giving away some of our PPE supplies to other countries in early 2020, etc.  However, a lot of those mistakes were made by people that who were either related to Trump, married to someone related to Trump or very loyal to Trump.   The situation required more people with relevant government experience.   They might not have done better, but they couldn't have done much worse.  The stumbling was the likely outcome if the administration was tested by something not influenced by POTUS tweets.

I have been encouraged by a few senior Republican leaders finally telling everyone to wear masks over the last couple of days.   My guess is now that the primaries are over they know they can safely pivot to the middle that wants to see people reference science and medicine.   They can do that now because the know they will not see tweets from POTUS instructing voters to support the other candidate.