As the DNC and mainstream media jackals (I repeat myself) ramp up their criticism of President Trump and his task force, and their subsequent actions in response to the COVID pandemic, Theodore Roosevelt's "man in the arena" came to mind.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Since early January, the president and his advisers have made hundreds (thousands) of decisions in response to the coronavirus threat, many based on what has now been determined to be overly pessimistic modeling. 

We can all be critical of any number of those decisions, but on the whole, he has attempted to do the right thing for the American people.

The president's travel ban was the right thing to do, and it likely saved hundreds if not thousands of lives.  Italy, Spain, and others postponed their bans, and the result of their inaction has been catastrophic.  Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden, as well as their myriad spokesholes, denounced this action as xenophobic.

A couple weeks ago, President Trump said that the drug hydroxycloroquine might turn out to be an effective treatment for COVID-19.  Democrat "leaders" and sycophantic media mouthpieces immediately came out against it.  Donald Trump is anti-science, they proclaimed.  Donald Trump had gotten this information from informed, knowledgeable medical professionals on his staff.  No matter: The Democrats knew better.  Except they didn't.  As the Michigan and Nevada governors restricted the prescribing of hydroxycloroquine, study after study deemed the treatment safe and effective.

Donald Trump has, as all of government has, encroached on our constitutional rights during this crisis, but as Democrats (and Bill Gates) clamor for a national "lockdown," the president has affirmatively resisted.

Again, out of the thousands of decisions and actions taken by the president and his task force, some of them could have been handled differently, or better, but we'll never know.

The question though for the critics is, where were you?

Where were you, Nancy Pelosi?

Where were you, Chuck Schumer?

Where were you, Joe Biden?

Where were you, Andrew Cuomo?

Where were you, Bill de Blasio?

Where were you, Hillary Clinton?

Where were you, Barack Obama?

It is one thing to Monday-morning quarterback; it is quite another to step into the arena and make stuff happen.

The credit belongs to Donald Trump, the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. 

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.