Most rational people would agree that had this plague descended upon us during Obama’s presidency, he would have done a far better job of dealing with it. That being said, the question arises, would it have made any difference so far as the outcome? At first blush, the answer is “obviously yes”, but if you think about it, it might be “no”.
There’s no question that Obama would have warned about the plague and attempted to get the various state governments to prepare for it. That warning would no doubt have gone out in January. What would the reaction have been?
Some state governments, those run completely by Democrats, would have taken preparatory steps. At the same time the entire Fox network would have accused him of lying, making a power grab, exaggerating the threat, etc. In other words, the same charges they’ve made or are making against Democrats now would have been made against Obama. The Federal government would have been better prepared, and the blue states better prepared, but the Red States would quite likely have fiercely resisted taking any steps to prepare, as some still are, while pledging fealty to Dear Leader. Resistance to the idea of social distancing would have been far fiercer in those states.
It’s too early to tell if the “Cares Act”, or, more properly “[We] Cares [More about Corporations Than People] Act” will achieve anything substantial. However, were Obama president, it would never have passed in any form, assuming that the Republicans were in control of the Senate. Not even a plague would have swayed the Republicans from their determination that Obama achieve nothing. It would trouble Mitch McConnell not at all if thousands of people starved from lack of food or died from lack of medical care, for they would not be the people he serves. Even now, as I’ve somewhat noted above, the measures taken are designed to comfort the comfortable more than to assist the afflicted, and some Republicans are saying out loud that a few thousand extra deaths is a small price to pay to keep the Republican money base happy.
It goes without saying that the networks would resist covering daily briefings by Obama, which would, of course, be carried out in a dignified, respectable manner. Obama would actually rely on experts. Maybe MSNBC and CNN would cover his briefings, but that’s questionable, and, of course, it goes without saying that Fox would ignore them, or spend the time accusing him of wasting time he should be using to deal with the plague that, now that it was an undeniable fact, would now be all his fault. They would also accuse him of lying, even though it also goes without saying that he wouldn’t lie.
The sad fact is that we might still rank near the bottom, behind South Korea, et.al., so far as our handling of the virus goes. The probability is that things would be better than they are in the blue states, which could have prepared sooner and would have been the beneficiaries of equitable treatment on the part of the federal government. The lives saved in the blue states might very well be made up in the Red States, where governors like DeSantis and Kemp would quite likely have resisted effective quarantine measures even longer than they did, with even more exceptions. On first blush that might seem like a good trade, but the Red State deaths would likely be overwhelmingly poor blacks, just as is the case in those states now, only there would be more of them.
Ironical Addendum: A Fox regular, Bret Baier, actually went there and wondered how Fox would react if Obama had claimed to have absolute power, as Trump has. He really put his neck on the line there. Maybe he’s thinking of retiring anyway.
