Melinda Crane is DW's chief political correspondent
Posted on 04/09/2020 9:00:22 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
What do Angela Merkel and Queen Elizabeth II give us that Donald Trump doesn't? The answers to that question shed light on what citizens need from leaders as we struggle to cope with COVID-19.
1. Straight talk
Not too long ago I received an envious message from a friend in Washington: "Angela Merkel's speech, that 60 percent of us will get the virus, made her an instant hero here."
In her own address to the British people on Sunday night, Queen Eilzabeth's first words were an acknowledgment of the disruption, grief and financial difficulties the nation was facing. Like the chancellor, and in stark contrast to the US president, she made no false assurances nor mollifying claims as to potential remedies and exit strategies.
2. Empathy and example
Neither the chancellor nor the queen are renowned for personal warmth and the common touch. Yet their respective addresses were all the more affecting for their tone of somber restraint.
President Trump bestows praise and gratitude chiefly upon himself and - occasionally - the corporate titans he surrounds himself with at his daily briefings. He undermines senior medical advisors to their faces, scapegoats critics and flagrantly disavows hygiene practices such as use of a mask. Even as he declared a national emergency, he slapped backs and shook hands.
3. Dignity
What the chancellor and the queen possess and convey that the president utterly lacks is dignity. Why does dignity matter? For the same reason that facts count and empathy and example enable: Dignity is infectious, it catalyzes a response.
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
Melinda Crane is DW's chief political correspondent
If an American president needs to communicate with the Germans, he can speak to them in Austrian.
Wow. Socialist Angela Merkel destroys her country with open borders and she is a savior.
Leftists live in a very dense fog. Apparently Melinda’s is unusually dense.
Go Efff yourself Melinda...
False equivalency. As usual.
Queen was very good for a 5-minute one-off pep talk, well deep into the crisis. With no cat calling antagonists playing middle-school “Gotcha” and “So’s your old man” and “When did you stop beating your wife?”
Actually I liked Pompeo last night. Forthright. Concise. Direct.
Whatever Melinda.
Pompeo would be an excellent POTUS.
Trump has to lead and actually make decisions....she does not.
God Save the Queen....We MEAN IT, MAN!
LOL - must have missed it. But then I don't live in DC.
Comparing prepared speeches, or questions from a fawning press are quite different than the landscape that Trump is being faced with.
Well played sir!
Yeah, I love that man. He smiles a lot which I like and he is so so smart, articulate
“Pompeo would be an excellent POTUS.”
The Republican party has an excellent stable.
I can’t figure out what happened to the Democratic party.
Liar.
President Trump made NO false assurances nor mollified claims of anything. His assurances and claims are to benefit a fearful nation. There is absolutely nothing wrong, and everything to admire, about his positive outlook. And besides, he has repeatedly spoken about how bad the virus would be.
Crane's just wrong, and slanders the President.
He doesn't contradict health officials--they contradict each other!
All I hear from every briefing by the President is praise for others. He has praised democrat governors Newsome and Cuomo, Dr. Fauci, President Xi (I would disagree with on THAT praise), and every and each CEO who is pitching in to help.
This article is so full of lies and distortions it is very easy to tear it apart.
So the Queen is a great commnicator with dumbass a kruat leader, but when it come to little William, her grandson, and his batcrap crazy lib wife, its excommunication-nd exile to Canada? Riiiight Melinda!
Pompeo is one of our stars.
Forthright, focused but with a wicked sense of humor. He has a servant’s heart toward the American people, those who work under his wing and our allies.
Such bullshit. An childless east German stasi woman, and a geezer British plundering plutocrat who couldn’t care less about their countries.
Both were silent as millions of moslems flooded in.
Both are worthless as tits on a boar.
Trump give an hour or two of detail daily. What is this bimbo talking about? Merkel just shrugged and said too bad. Lizzie was waxing back to WWII and pretending it’s the Blitz and talking about Vera Lynn.
I guess it makes sense to hear from crazy bats when the crazy bat soup disease is going around.
Angela Merkel. “Straight talk and dignity.” On immigration?
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