Lazy Daze

These lazy, particularly crazy, days of summer are the product of the lazy daze of this administration.  Beginning with the winter of our discontent, this president has never expended the effort necessary to govern.

Joe Biden has a transition team hard at work.   The ship of state needs a large crew ready to go at embarkation.  After aborting a transition team under Chis Christy, Trump won the election without anyone to steer the ship.  His cadre was shocked to discover 6000 positions subject to presidential appointment.  He never made the effort to staff the government.

Obama appointees were left in position, vetting was slip shod leading to frequent embarrassments.  To this very summer day, scores of positions are either vacant or filled on a temporary basis.  Under, and poorly, staffed the government has flailed.

The books by Mary Trump and John Bolton, paint a shallow portrait.  Trump has never done an honest days work.  His younger sister did his college homework, his friend took his SAT, and daddy's money bailed him out of personal and business failures.  He neither reads his daily security reports nor absorbs his oral briefings.

He governs by tweets, executive proclamations and talking points.  He never does the hard work of developing policy and a course of action.  He golfed while the nation became engulfed in a pandemic.    He was glued to Fox News, as our bonds with our allies weakened, and our rivals shed our constraints.

To this day Trump refuses to do his homework before engaging with foreign leaders.  Better informed, our adversaries have the advantage.  But his greatest failing has been the Coronavirus.

As the nation begged for leadership, he left the hard work to the governors, never formulating a national policy.  As foreign  leaders imposed their will, bringing the virus to heel, we have allowed it to fester and proliferate.

Most recently Trump has called for schools to reopen.  He has reduced it to a slogan, rather than a plan.  To win reelection, he needs the economy to improve. School is the day care that allows return to full employment.  But Trump has refused to do the hard work of outlining and funding the steps for a safe reopening.

We need a hard working Joe.