Relatively little has been seen or heard from former President Barack Obama since he left the White House. Not even an endorsement of his two-time Vice President Joe Biden – even now, when Biden’s only formal competition is the self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders (if this doesn’t tell you something about Mr. Obama’s “regard” for Mr. Biden, you are unreachable).
But now he has come out of the shadows to criticize President Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
Why? Possibly because some people – almost exclusively among conservative venues, of course – are (gasp!) comparing it to Mr. Obama’s woeful handling of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus in 2009.
From Matt Margolis’ article at pjmedia.com, we have this:
On Tuesday morning, Barack Obama criticized Trump’s rollback of fuel standards in a tweet that made what appears to be a backhanded critique of Trump’s response to the coronavirus. “We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic,” Obama said.
Who exactly was Obama talking about there? Now, it’s quite possible he was actually talking about himself, seeing as how even after the H1N1 pandemic that claimed as many as 18,000 American lives, according to CDC estimates, Obama’s response to the Ebola pandemic later in his presidency was similarly wrought with problems–so much so that even the Obama White House and the CDC acknowledged there were multiple “shortcomings” in the administration’s response. Those shortcomings may have been the result of Obama axing the White House pandemic response office in 2009, which was reinstated in 2016 specifically because of his administration’s poor response to the Ebola pandemic.
Mr. Margolis goes on to detail just how ineptly Barack Obama handled H1N1 – as thousands and thousands died – and compare it to the quick and decisive steps President Trump has taken to combat COVID-19. The differences are jaw-dropping.
Here’s one difference Mr. Margolis, in his excellent article, did not cover, which I think it worth noting.
-On March 13, President Trump declared a formal national emergency – just two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a global pandemic.
-By contrast, WHO declared H1N1 a global pandemic on June 11, 2009. President Obama didn’t formally declare it a national emergency until October 24 – well over four months later.
Don’t bother looking for that comparison in most mainstream media. Mr. Obama was absolved of any responsibility for the sickness and death his inaction caused, by reason of being in the Democrat Party.
In any event, the bottom line here is that, of all the people who should not be pointing fingers at Donald Trump’s performance during the COVID-19 crisis, Barack Obama should be at the bottom of the list.
Mr. Obama: you’ve spent years doing a disappearing act from public life. For your own benefit, if nothing else, how about keeping it that way.
