Outside, millions of desperate people have been standing for hours in lines stretching around the corners of America's city streets. Inside, others have been searching the Internet and getting kicked off by overloaded websites.
They were just trying to do the right thing: Get tested for covid so they could find out if it was safe to go home for Christmas. Yet there were no simple, cheap or free tests that millions could get in time.
That's how things have turned out as America nears the end of the first year of Joe Biden's so far up-and-down presidency. We have seen impressive successes, yet also shattering setbacks. But here's the good news: Our president and his team can discover their central problem just by glancing at their own rearview mirror.
The year 2021 turned out to be a Year of Worst-Case Scenarios. Biden and his best and brightest advisers failed to anticipate the fact that a worst-case scenario could happen. So they were caught flatfooted when the worst happened here in America and also in Afghanistan.
To sense the mindset that led to today's worst-case crisis, check out this White House Dec. 6 news briefing.
Press secretary Jen Psaki was asked a good, fair question: "Last week ... the president explained some ramp-up in testing. But there are still a lot of countries, like Germany and the U.K. and South Korea, that basically have massive testing, free of charge or for a nominal fee. Why can't that be done in the United States?" Psaki made the mistake press secretaries often make when they assume their first priority is defending their boss, rather than briefing the people. They turn their briefing into a debate.
"Should we just send one to every American?" the pressed secretary asked back. " ... Then what--then what happens if you--if every American has one test? How much does that cost, and then what happens after that?" But the defensiveness begins at the top. Listen to how Biden responded to PBS' Yamiche Alcindor on Dec. 21, when she fairly asked: "What's your message to Americans who are trying to get tested now and who are not able to get tested and who are wondering what took so long to ramp up testing?" "Come on, 'What took so long?'" Biden replied. "Well, what took so long is it didn't take long at all. What happened was the omicron virus spread even more rapidly than anybody thought. If I had told you four weeks ago that this would spread by--a day-to-day basis--it would spread by 50, 100 percent, 200 percent, 500 percent, you would've looked at me and said, 'Biden, what are you drinking?' But that's what it did." Yet another president found a way to paint himself into a corner. The Joe Biden I've known for decades would have been the first to say her question was fair. He would have said he sure wishes he'd asked the worst-case scenario question.
Earlier this year, we saw what happened when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin never asked the ultimate worst-case scenario question: If Afghanistan's military collapses after we rushed the U.S. troop withdrawal, how will Americans and our Afghan allies get airlifted to freedom? We all saw that deadly answer on live TV.
And recently, as the omicron virus spread like a wildfire, we saw what happened because Biden and his top covid advisers failed to ask that worst-case question about stockpiling covid quick tests. They could have been giving away free quick tests in December so you and your loved ones could have stress-free holidays.
Team Biden can and must do better in 2022.