Franklin D. Roosevelt (D), who bravely declared at his first inaugural address as the 32nd president during the depths of the Depression in 1933, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," spoke from experience, as 12 years earlier, he was stricken with polio, leaving him partially paralyzed.

Echoing his predecessor, President Donald J. Trump (R), another state of New York native, walked out of Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. yesterday after treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus, COVID-19, declaring:

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!

Once back in the White House, he added:

I stood out front, I led. Nobody that's a leader would not do what I did. I know there's a risk, there's a danger, but that's ok. Now I'm better, and maybe I'm immune, I don't know. But don't let it dominate your lives. Get out there, be careful.

Contrast their attitude to that of Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who usually places a lid, the arcane term reporters use when a politician is done traveling for the day — 1:02 P.M. Friday; 9:20 A.M. Thursday; 9:22 A.M. Tuesday, and 8:34 A.M. Saturday.  Biden's early turn-ins provoked the Twitter set, professionally nervous Democrats (OK, bed-wetters) and, notably, Donald Trump to scratch their heads or rain down ridicule.

Although Biden does occasionally venture forth on the campaign trail, he more often hunkers down in his campaign bunker, where he tries to connect with his potential voters by reciting words seemingly prepared by others with little input from him.  And when he is campaign out in the fresh air, face to face with people, and needs to speak spontaneously when questioned by usually friendly reporters, his wife saves him, gently pulling him away.

Hmm, now who could better confront an enemy, be it a pandemic or North Korea or Hamas or China or Antifa, all of which do not follow rules, whether from the Commission on Presidential Debates or the U.N. or the Wuhan coronavirus or the U.S. government?  A president who has faced fear but doesn't allow it to conquer him or one whose wife has to protect him from friendly reporters?

Now go vote.  Fearlessly but carefully.

Image credit: Pixabay public domain.