The 800-Pound Gorilla in the Oval Office

A Delusional President Ignores the Coronavirus

Don't worry about the coronavirus. Its feelings aren't hurt. It doesn't have feelings. And it's used to not being seen. It is, after all, invisible to the naked eye.

I'm a bit more concerned about the idea that the president is psychotic. I don't generally throw around inflammatory psychological terms, but my God - pretty soon we're going to have more dead people than the U.S. had in World War II (405,399).

I imagine the coronavirus in the Oval Office. I'm seeing its diminutive figure sitting comfortably in an armchair. Wearing dark glasses (really, a very stylish virus).

Doesn't look like an 800-pound gorilla. But then, as you know, appearances can be deceiving. (And by the way, there are no 800-pound gorillas. They generally top out around 400 pounds.)

The sod behind the Resolute desk can't see the virus in the armchair. He's busy with other things, important things. Delusional things. Things that aren't there.

In his mad pursuit of a horse that has already left the barn, he is assisted by an attorney whose behavior has been, at best, bizarre for quite some time. A man who quotes the movie "My Cousin Vinny" badly. My family will never forgive him.

Our mass death event is worse than a crime. It is a mistake. It needn't have happened. Any moderately competent public health response would have had the pandemic under control months ago. Alas, it was not to be. 

Never trust a president who has his head up his ass. Oops. Too vulgar. Avoid flaming narcissists in the Oval Office. But very few people know who Narcissus was, or that while admiring his reflection in the calm surface of a lake, he lost his balance, fell into the water, and drowned. (We don't have good documentary evidence for this story. But then it is a myth.)

How about, Look for a president who looks after others as well as himself. A little flat, but it'll have to do.

See also Little Karl, And So the Worm Turned.