Burnwinter wrote:

Even unpopular incumbents are currently getting popularity boosts from their "handling" (however incompetent) of the crisis, I'm not really sure it's possible for this to hurt Trump unless something truly extraordinary happens, despite him being pretty inexpert at exploiting it for his own popularity.

Merkel gave the worst speech of her career couple weeks ago and literally every major media outlet was lapping it up. I'd say in times of uncertainty people are clinging to every leader no matter how incompetent, but with the way all news channels seem gleichgeschaltet whenever some shit like this goes down who really knows

I know you're no fan of Merkel but don't you think Germany has done a better job of managing the virus that almost any other country of its size? The ones that have done better - Taiwan/Korea - have had to deal with blotching the SARS and MERS response in recent memory whereas Germany have pretty much started from scratch despite being larger than Taiwan and Korea put together.

In that context it isn't surprising that people seem relatively positive about your gov.

Burnwinter wrote:

I agree he's theoretically vulnerable. But Boris Johnson is also theoretically vulnerable and he's being hailed as a hero for now.

Trump does lack the ability to include all Americans which tells against him when media discourse is hunting for a gross nation-building narrative.

I haven't seen Johnson hailed a hero. There has been a lot of criticism over the timing and range of the measures put in place here from many, and plenty of comment about the lack of enforcement.  

Tam wrote:

Burnwinter wrote:

I agree he's theoretically vulnerable. But Boris Johnson is also theoretically vulnerable and he's being hailed as a hero for now.

Trump does lack the ability to include all Americans which tells against him when media discourse is hunting for a gross nation-building narrative.

I haven't seen Johnson hailed a hero. There has been a lot of criticism over the timing and range of the measures put in place here from many, and plenty of comment about the lack of enforcement.  

His approval rating is the highest its been in years: https://www.afr.com/world/europe/brits-back-boris-on-lockdown-even-as-recession-looms-over-europe-20200325-p54dkd

It's the same for all major leaders at the moment, of course whether it lasts depends on the final result and how we do relative to other countries. It also should be said that compared to most world leaders, Johnson was never that unpopular to begin with - he just won a landslide election after all:

Burnwinter wrote:

Even unpopular incumbents are currently getting popularity boosts from their "handling" (however incompetent) of the crisis, I'm not really sure it's possible for this to hurt Trump unless something truly extraordinary happens, despite him being pretty inexpert at exploiting it for his own popularity.

Our caretaker Taoiseach who was demolished in the election 2 months ago is now way up despite him having been at war with the healthcare staff for the last couple of years.

Don't worry once Mary-Lou builds back up her strength, and the Connolly House boys think it's opportune, they'll be manoeuvring to put a massive dent in whatever popularity Leo has regained over recent weeks.

I can cope with Leo as caretaker, I cannot be doing with the thought of Mehole Martin ascending to Taoiseach though - even in a rotating capacity.

Essentially we need another election as the current alternative option - a multi party, random indie, Sinn Fein led coalition - anxiety inducing in Covid 19 world.

I don't give a shite whether its Leo and Michael. They're pretty much the exact same.

Calling another election any time soon would probably destroy most of the good will FG have now so I wouldn't expect that. Plus they'll still be nervous what'll happen if SF run more candidates. Seems to me most of FGs bump has come at the expense of FF so I think there's still going to be a major split after another election anyway.

It's an easy win for leaders really. They're seen leading, making decisions and enacting policies to help people. Most of the electorate do not look at politics beyond a very superficial level.

Any hardship is placed on the door of the virus. It's only if things are seen as being significantly better abroad where people start to ask questions but in this case it will be global pain.

Huh?

Those Zoom debates with Biden and Trump are going to be something else.

Intercourse is fine. It's a strange word if you want to giggle like teenagers, but was the right word in the context.
I'm surprised nobody has coached 'in fact' out of Biden. Maybe it's a helpful crutch for him. Don't know

Inspiring.

Couldn't even come up with a woman or a POC

Twitter is a mad house.
Fact is. He needs to be a bridge. He’s probably better off not mentioning a woman because that will send Twitter into an even bigger tailspin than it’s in now. So bland Pete’s a safe choice for that platform.

Why would mentioning a woman be a problem?

If he mentions a woman, people will pick the comment apart to suggest the woman is the front runner for VP nominee.
The only safe name might be AOC as she’s ineligible due to her age.