THIS WILL NEVER BE “BIDEN’S VIRUS”

 

11/21/20

 

I wrote this letter to the Wall Street Journal last week and it was published Monday.  I thought my readers who do not subscribe to the Journal, or who do not regularly read the “Letters to the Editor” Section, might enjoy it:

 

 

11/11/20

 

In his 11/11/20 Business World Column, Holman Jenkins contends that “It’s Biden’s Virus Now.”   From a policy standpoint, Mr. Jenkins is correct; come January, it will be up to the Biden Administration to eradicate, or at least manage, the coronavirus, a task that will doubtless be aided by the vaccines developed under President Trump’s unacknowledged Operation Warp Speed.

 

From a political standpoint, however, Mr. Jenkins could not be more wrong; this will never be “Biden’s virus.”  To the extent that Mr. Biden’s administration fails in its struggle against the pandemic, COVID will remain Trump’s virus and the Biden failure will be blamed on President Trump’s letting the virus get out of control.  On the other hand, to the extent that the new administration succeeds in its efforts against the coronavirus, the result will be portrayed as the enlightened Biden team’s triumph over the former administration’s incompetence and “denial of science” in the face of the Trump virus.

 

Most of us don’t care who gets the credit; we just want the COVID situation ameliorated so we can get back to normal.   But in Washington, where politics is everything, this will never be Biden’s virus; it will always be Trump’s virus and hence is a win/win for Mr. Biden.

 

Mark M. Quinn

Naperville, IL