Good morning. Iâm Walter Shapiro, staff writer for The New Republic, playing the role of New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia reading the comics to children on the radio during a 1945 newspaper strike. OK, there is a minor differenceâLaGuardia got to read Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie, while I am stuck (along with the rest of us) regaling you with tales of Covid and Joe Manchin.
But first, for music this morning, I want to recommend Maureen McGovern singing that 1970s disaster classic, The Morning After, from the shipwreck movie The Poseidon Adventure. You can imagine how Joe Biden must have felt, five months after declaring victory over the pandemic (âThe virus is on the run, and America is coming back,â he said at the time), when he announced Thursday at the White House, âWe are looking at a winter of severe illness and death.â He added: âOmicron is here. Itâs going to start to spread much more rapidly at the beginning of the year, and the only real protection is to get your shots.â
The New York Times adroitly captures things with its lead headline in the print edition, âOmicron Spread Certain, but Its Full Threat Is Not.â The medical quotes in the stories in the major newspapers tend toward the chilling: S. Wesley Long, a microbiologist at Houston Methodist, told The Washington Post, âItâs breathtaking to watch the rate at which everything is increasing right now.â The Times quotes Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, as saying, âI think we need to be prepared for the possibility that this could be at least as bad as any previous wave weâve seen.â In contrast, the Los Angeles Times takes a more upbeat approach, arguing in a front-page online story, âIf cases tended to be more mild and Covid-19 vaccines could still protect the most vulnerable people from dying, a kinder, gentler omicronâeven a highly contagious oneâcould be the break health officials and scientists have been waiting for.â
The truth is, of course, there is so much we still donât know about omicron and its implications. In political terms, everyone should remember that the pandemic colors all polling, regardless of the question, since it dominates the national mood. Before anyone ventures 2022 political predictions, remember that everything will pivot around where we are with Covid-19 next fall. If the pandemic is finally and truly on the run, then it is easy to imagine the buoyant national mood that will follow. In contrast, a nation reeling from a sixth or seventh wave will be an angry, roiled place.
Meanwhile, in a tale as familiar as Lucy and the football, Joe Manchin once again put the kibosh on Senate Democratic efforts to pass Bidenâs $2 trillion spending package this year. Democratic Senate Whip Dick Durbin described the mood to reporters on Thursday as âfrustrated and disappointed.â Then Durbin added, in a triumph of hope over experience, âWe missed an opportunity, but Iâm not giving up.â The damage that Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are doing to Democratic hopes in 2022 is beyond reckoning. At this point, the loss of faith from agonizing months of frustrating negotiations is probably greater than the possible political gains from actual passage.
Kamala Harris, buffeted by high-level staff departures, gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal that inadvertently highlighted one of the roots of her political problems. This rare Harris interview was breathtakingly boring. A sample: âAsked if she planned to manage her office differently, she said in the interview that she valued her teamâs work and would remain focused on policy issues.â Or talking about her work with Biden, the vice president said, âWeâre building back up our economy, and we are re-establishing Americaâs role in the context of our allies and partners around the world.â
Part of this is the vice presidentâs curseâa V.P. canât make policy and canât upstage the president. That leaves room for little more than banalities. True, other Democratic vice presidents adroitly managed to transcend this bind: Al Gore by taking on major responsibilities as part of âReinventing Governmentâ and Joe Biden through the force of his irrepressible personality. Harris, in contrast, favors making implausible claims, such as when she responded to a question from the Journal about whether Biden would run in 2024 by saying, âIâll be very honest: I donât think about it, nor have we talked about it.â
Here at New Republic.com, Grace Segers pinpoints the real-life harm that Joe Manchin is doing with his obstinacy. The first casualty, unless Congress passes the Biden package by December 28, will be the child tax credit payments that families will be expecting in mid-January. But no Manchin, no payments, with all the hardships attached. Tim Noah has a fascinating piece about the original West Side Story, pointing out that the storyline of a white gang versus a Puerto Rican gang makes no sense against the demographics of 1950s New York and that both the original film and the current one airbrush African Americans out of the neighborhood. Molly Osberg offers a sad-eyed look at how tragedies are almost inevitable at Amazon facilities: âThe company has built a workforce of contract and short-term laborers operating in massive buildings vulnerable to disaster.â
Doing my part in the War Against Christmas, I wish you Happy Holidays,
âWalter Shapiro, staff writer |
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