The Wrong Governors. By JIM GERAGHTY
Excerpt: Pretend for a moment that you are a journalist with a strong leaning in favor of progressivism and the Democratic Party, and you wish to make the argument that Democratic governors are doing a great job of mitigating the spread of the coronavirus. If you use the measuring stick of fewest cases per million residents, Hawaii ranks first, as of this writing. Then Montana and Alaska, and Vermont ranks fourth. (While most people would consider Montana a red state, governor Steve Bullock is a Democrat; while most think of Vermont a blue state, governor Phil Scott is a Republican.) Maine ranks sixth, Oregon ranks seventh, and Kentucky ranks ninth. The states with the most cases per million residents are New York and New Jersey, and then, after a steep drop of about 5,000 cases, Arizona, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts round out the top six. ... The personality, the pugnaciousness, the presence, the poll numbers . . . these governors have assembled all of the ingredients for a classic success story — except for the actual record of success. By all kinds of measures, these most extensively covered and praised Democratic governors have done a job that is “meh” at best and pretty darn bad at worst. The decisions of Cuomo, Whitmer, Newsom, and Murphy regarding the movement of infected patients from hospitals to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities might be the worst and most consequential of the crisis. Whitmer made odd and difficult-to-justify decisions, including banning the purchase of seeds, and her husband apparently “jokes” about being exempt from state orders. California’s coronavirus-testing programs stumbled right out of the gate. Murphy violated his own order on large gatherings. Very little of this has affected the job-approval ratings of these governors — in part because only some portions of the media world are interested in the flaws of the records of these governors. The others prefer to stick to their preselected happy narrative.
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