The Secret Service couldn't stop it. Frequent testing couldn't stop it. The tinfoil hat types can now dispense of the term "hoax" when discussing covid-19.
This thing is no respecter of persons. The most guarded man in the world has come down with it. And his wife, a few staffers, and who knows who else by the time you read this.
This microscopic creature wants to survive, and it will leap from other being to other being to do so. The coronavirus doesn't care if you're a billionaire or the poorest person in a Third World country. The coronavirus doesn't even care if you believe in it. From its point of view, if it had one, it would be better if you didn't. Easier to pass to a new host that way.
Just as the United States was prepping for this election/duel/mud-wrasslin' match, everything stopped Friday morning. The president--your president, no matter your politics--and the first lady have tested positive. They are in lockdown.
For most Americans, politics stopped for a minute, sort of a pause, as our collective humanity took over. And our feelings, and worries, about national security. When the captain of the ship isn't at the wheel, the boat could be in peril.
Thankfully, those who put together this government thought to give the country a chain of command. And a deputy who could take over, even temporarily, if the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces has to take to his bed for a few days. But let's pray it doesn't come to that.
His opponent in the up-comin', Joe Biden, wished the nation's executive all the best--"a swift recovery." Good on Joe Biden. He was a heartbeat away from the presidency for eight years. He knows the importance of a president in office.
What started out as another week's work on the kiss-my-baby circuit turned into bipartisan concern and sympathy. What a country. What a humanity. What's important came across, even from many of the president's most bitter critics. Rachel Maddow, Jesse Jackson and Dick Durbin reached out with well-wishes.
We'd like to add this, only if we could: "All that is petty faded away." But we cannot. For some people can't help themselves. And allow not only petty thoughts at a time like this, but petty words.
(Which brings us to the media. You know, just because some so-and-so on the Internet--on Facebook or Twitter--says something poisonous and obnoxious, that's no need to necessarily report it. Have we lost the concept of "newsworthy"?)
Without Donald Trump on the hustings, the coming weeks of campaigning in America will have less ... zest. But that is how it must be. Doctor's orders. It's not going to hurt anybody to cancel the next debate. It might even help calm the national waters.
We can only offer the words of so many others: Get Well Soon.
That's a wish not only for the president and FLOTUS, but for the country, and for everybody who's been affected by this damnable bug.