Tell the grim truth with merited optimism. FDR & Trump know the scale of risk. @ConradMBlack
Image: FDR fireside chat, September 30, 1934. Public domain. Conrad Black, NRO and author, in re: Canada has a financial-stabilization package of sorts, but a very good low-infection rate internationally. The notion of Americans’s fleeing the US to Canada: it’s not easy to cross the border for no good reason, and Canada’s marginally-better infection rates make it not worth the effort. Mrs Pelosi’s blue-ribbon commission to investigate the virus, where she attributed “blood on his hands” to President Trump. Not a blue-ribbon committee—if she appoints them, it won't be— it looks like simply a smear job. . . . They have a semi-comatose candidate who’s rising in the polls. February 1942 fireside chat by FDR: he delivered [difficult] news; he was sincere, but you could tell he was delivering bad news. I heard Trump as being cautiously confident that we’d come in under 100,000. Tactically the right move: tell the people the grim truth, but make sure that the immediate future is hopeful and the future beyond immediate is good. Both FDR and Trump know the scale of risk.