Joe Invisible
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Hunkered-down America is spending an inordinate amount of time getting to know a Florida man who calls himself Joe Exotic. The star of a wholly bizarre Netflix true series called The Tiger King, Joe is the country’s best-known animal-based media star since Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Ed. (Non-Boomers should rest assured no points will be subtracted for blanking on those references.)
It remains to be seen if Joe Exotic is more than a summer fling. But the next few months will also be remembered for creation of another improbable character: Joe Invisible. The artist formerly known as Joe Biden has spent the past few months first rocketing from nowhere to his party’s presumptive Presidential nomination—and then quickly into obscurity.
Have you seen Joe lately?
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There was a time people couldn’t talk enough about Joe Invisible; even his political enemies. After ascending to dominance in the primaries, speculation on his choice of a running mate began to dominate dinner party chatter from coast to coast.
Now we don’t have dinner parties anymore.
Propriety banished him from the campaign trail. His battle with Bernie Sanders has also gone cold; how are you supposed to go out to vote when you’re ordered to stay home? While Donald Trump dithers in response to the pandemic…and record numbers of Americans join the unemployment rolls…Biden is largely limited to an occasional TV sighting and releasing short statements of criticism from his campaign headquarters.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is absolutely luxuriating in his daily bath of attention at White House virus briefings. No matter that he and Mike Pence form buffoonish bookends around the important information delivered by Drs. Deborah Birx and Tony Fauci. They are so honest and informed they manage to overcome the toxic swill that precedes and follows them. Trump doesn’t mind. More than ever, he IS the man. Just ask him.
Yes, Trump is ecstatic even in this time of tragedy. His embrace of the national microphone is absolute. It could be another unseen miracle…yet the latest act of improbable good fortune…that kept him out of jail all these years and eventually elevated him to the White House. True, he says he wants the economy back on its feet to save his precious Dow Jones average. But it won’t be long until he realizes that nothing is going to fix the economy between now and November. That’s a losing bet.
And when that happens, he’ll be left with misguidedly shepherding a nation back to medical health. And of course, he’ll claim full credit when it happens. (Did you catch him boasting about his early move to ban travel from China? Of course you did—he says it every day!)
It may prove true that this unstoppable b.s.machine is, in fact,
unstoppable.
But there’s a silver lining.
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If the best thing Trump can hope for is command of the TV audience for months…his greatest danger is also having command of the TV audience for months. His ego is so inflated…his defense against criticism so thin…that larger and larger meltdowns should be coming.
As the death toll mounts in the coming weeks, the fumbling excuses and denials of statements he made only a day before will come further to the forefront.
A prime example was the dismissal of the captain of a Navy aircraft carrier for having the gall to privately urge his superiors to do more to protect the 5,000 naval personnel on his ship from the virus. That plea was contained in a confidential letter—but the letter leaked. Certainly, Trump knew about the firing, if not ordering if directly. Either way, you wound up with much of the military rank and file standing up for the man who attempted to protect the people under his command; and the other side, the Trump team inventing excuses as to why the captain was really the bad guy.
And this occurred the same time emergency room personnel at New York hospitals walked outside to heartbreakingly plea for the personal protection equipment that is always promised…but never seems to arrive. Another group of American heroes who are mere political props for Trump.
This is getting worse for him. He’s slowly realizing you can’t b.s. the virus.
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Joe Invisible apparently remains somewhere in witness protection. But that might not be a bad thing.
First, the media has stopped its obsession with his “gaffes”.
Second, preserving campaign dollars for the big run in the fall isn’t a bad thing.
Third (this is just my impression), I think Joe could use several weeks off to recharge his batteries.
And finally, he may find that being invisible is quite preferable to a rival who relishes being highly visible at all times—and consequently proves himself the fool to more Americans every day.
As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
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