The Rules of the Coronavirus Blame Game

The stable genius shows off his great vocabulary

Over at The Bulwark, a center-right source apparently consisting mostly of people driven out of the GOP in the fun-filled years of RINO hunts, Johnathan Last wrote a piece entitled Donald Trump’s Blame Game. Last writes:

"At a Republican debate on February 13, 2016, Trump got into an exchange with Jeb Bush in which he argued that President George W. Bush should have been impeached for the Iraq war and was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Here’s the transcript:

BUSH: And while Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I’m proud of what he did.And he has had the gall to go after my brother.

TRUMP: The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that.

BUSH: He has had the gall to go after my mother. Hold on. Let me finish. He has had the gall to go after my mother.

TRUMP: That’s not keeping us safe. . . .

RUBIO: I just want to say, at least on behalf of me and my family, I thank God all the time it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore.

And you can—I think you can look back in hindsight and say a couple of things, but he kept us safe. And not only did he keep us safe, but no matter what you want to say about weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was in violation of U.N. resolutions, in open violation, and the world wouldn’t do anything about it, and George W. Bush enforced what the international community refused to do.

And again, he kept us safe, and I am forever grateful to what he did for this country.

TRUMP: How did he keep us safe when the World Trade Center—the World—excuse me. I lost hundreds of friends. The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe. That is not safe, Marco. That is not safe.

RUBIO: The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him.

TRUMP: And George Bush—by the way, George Bush had the chance, also, and he didn’t listen to the advice of his CIA.

So those are the rules of engagement, as laid out by Donald Trump himself."

Thus, it seems fair to blame the president for the mess based on his own rules of engagement. Last points to two things he believes merit mention. He comments: "First, if you’re the president and, by early February, the coronavirus isn’t top of mind for you, then you’re too stupid to hold the office. And if a possible global pandemic is top of mind for you, then your #1 and #1(a) priorities have to be riding herd on the rapid development / procurement of tests and the stockpiling of critical medical supplies. If you fail to do this, then you’re too incompetent to hold office."

That's just playing the game by the president's own rules. Seems fair and balanced to me.

Politics ain't rational -- blither watch

Also, for fans of rationality in politics, note the irrationality of (i) Bush's comment that Trump attacked his mom, and (ii) Rubio's blither about Iraq violating UN sanctions[1] and how Bush kept us safe, when in fact the 9/11 attacks was an example of not being kept safe.

Footnote:

1. Most conservatives seem to hate the UN and don't give a fig about violations of sanctions. Israel is among the world's biggest UN sanctions violators, probably the biggest violator. That's no big deal to conservatives, most of whom are flaming hypocrites about this (and lots of other things).

Posted by Germaine