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| Kevin Lamarque/Reuters |
Joe Biden was the candidate of normality who hasn’t been able to deliver it, particularly on the pandemic.
This is not entirely his fault, obviously. He didn’t create the Delta and Omicron surges. Neither did he — or most anyone else — foresee that the vaccines wouldn’t prevent infections as advertised.
On Covid, though, as on much else, he has been trapped by a commitment to his political base and by a reflexive opposition to everything associated with Donald Trump into an endless emergency posture that isn’t wearing well with time.
Everyone agrees now — after the flameouts of initial efforts to pass Build Back Better and of the attempt to trash the Senate filibuster — that Biden needs a political reset. His looming Supreme Court pick will presumably provide a much-needed win but is unlikely to move the needle much. It’s on the pandemic that Biden has, in theory, an opportunity to change course in a significant way.
By more fully embracing an approach geared to living with Covid and returning to normality, Biden could usefully play against type, align himself with shifting public opinion, and acknowledge the reality of the third year of the pandemic when vaccines and boosters are easily available to anyone who wants them.
Even the thought of such a tack would, once upon a time, have elicited charges of intolerable recklessness. In certain quarters, it still does. But the public is moving in this direction. A new Monmouth poll found that 70 percent of the public agrees with the statement that “it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay, and we just need to get on with our lives.” --->READ MORE HERE
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| Win McNamee/Getty Images |
President Joe Biden remains stubbornly opposed to lifting coronavirus restrictions, despite the way Europe is leading the way back to normal.
A group of United States governors meeting with Biden at the White House on Monday said afterward they pleaded with the president to outline a path out of the pandemic, rather than continuously extending ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
“We need to move away from the pandemic,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters at the White House Monday after members of the National Governors Association met with the president. “And we asked the President to help give us clear guidelines on how we can return to a greater state of normality.”
Before the Q-and-A portion of the meeting, Biden indicated that the United States was not ready to loosen restrictions.
“We got a way to go on that, in my view, but we’re moving,” Biden said, hinting that governors should not jump ahead of the federal government on the strategy to reopen. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
‘Take back life’: More nations ease coronavirus restrictions
Isolated island in Pacific Ocean experiences first COVID-19 cases of the pandemic after arrival of fully vaccinated, triple-tested missionaries who were in quarantine
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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