" Of course, there are many more examples.  My point is: that the inability to confess even harmless, simple mistakes, and to instead "double-down" and never admit "errors" is a critical flaw in a national leader... especially now.  It has shaken my confidence and has, almost certainly and irretrievably, lost my vote."

Well put.

Effective leadership requires humility in the face of the vastness of the unknown. To claim possession of the answer before an understanding of the question is folly.

I do watch Fox News with an awareness of their bias. I also voted for Trump in the last election and will likely vote for him in the next one. Our country and world is facing down a crisis unlike any other in our lifetime. IMO, everyone got it wrong early on. I didn’t think it was a big deal until mid-March. I thought it was an overreaction to cancel Copia, but was quickly proven wrong. They made the right call. That’s small potatoes.

I tend to evaluate politicians and others by what they do more than by what they say. I don’t like a lot of what Trump says. I am not a fan of the self-congratulations. But, I do like most of what he has done. Closing travel to and from China and Europe turns out to have been wise, for example. Also, the guidelines have proven to be effective. He has been effective in ramping up production of PPE and ventilators.

It is up to the state governments to make decisions regarding their states and the federal government is the backstop. The media seems to have it backwards on this point. Back in my heyday, I responded in disaster relief to 9/11, Katrina, Sandy, and many others. FEMA came in to provide coordination between the affected states, but the states made the calls. States had their own stockpiles of food, water, medicines, etc. We have had an unprecedented number and severity of disasters in recent years which no doubt led to a depletion of state and federal stockpiles. We also made a huge strategic error in trusting China to provide our medicines and PPE. My points are that assigning blame is not helpful, and that we, as a country, need to focus on solutions. Just like we got free of OPEC, we need to be free of communist China government. I hope one day that the Chinese people can be free of the communist government.

One of my news sources is our state government health department daily updates. Our Minnesota governor seems to be inclined to keep us locked down. He is likely to experience a similar reaction to Michigan. He is considering closing the BWCAW, for example. One of the factors that affects me personally is that I had knee replacement in the last round of surgeries at Mayo before the shutdown. My rehab is going well, and I look forward to getting out of the house and doing more walking and hiking. I’m starting to go ‘shacky wacky’.

I very much dislike all politicians, especially the ones who started as lawyers, which is nearly all of them.

Winston Churchill commented that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others"

That is the way I feel about the current president, he is horrible, except for all of the other choices we were faced with, left or right.

What we tend to watch or listen to is mostly conformational bias which reinforce our current biases.  We're just emotionally comfortable there.  It takes an open mind to actually listen to opposing view points (remember reading is just another form of listening) and then make decisions based on that information....either incorporate it or reject it. 
Reasonable people will come to the correct decision.
Albert Einstein said "For every problem there is one solution which is neat, simple and wrong".

Stay safe.........

Solus,

Who checks the FACT CHECKERS?
I watch Fox news more often than any other mainstream media outlet.

I've watched LIBERAL guests and MORE than few Fox OPINION people go hard after the President.

I rarely see that on the other outlets. If they do have a Conservative on they often shout them down or constantly interrupt them.

  On Fox, you have the people that present the news and then the Opinion people. They are clearly marked as such.

You go to most other mainstream news stations you see NEWS people making OPINION/COMMENTARY interjecting THEIR bias as presenting it as fact.

  The recent Covid-19 briefing where they played the video montage of news organizations downplaying the Covid-19 danger and the timeline of the WH response as Jimbo said, condemned them with their own words.

  When I was in the Army 68-70 there was a lot going on. Racial tensions at home carried over into the Armed forces.

I met guys from virtually every state and territory.
I had rednecks/city-country blacks, surfer dudes and cowboys from out west.

  One thing MOST of us could agree on, except the people we bonded over NOT liking.

No matter WHAT color/race, the people from NYC in fact most big cities were universally DISLIKED by all.

NYC was the worst. EVERYTHING according to them was BETTER than any other place. Every one of them, big/little had a mouth on them like a character from the classic mob movie Wiseguys. They ALL thought they were tough guys. I know firsthand that wasn't even close to the truth.

  President Trump is your classic NYC guy PLUS he's a salesman. I apologize to any QJ members who are in sales, but we've all dealt with salespeople that are overbearing/braggarts and that have questionable relationships with the truth, at least part of the time.

I like MOST of what he's done but wouldn't want to be his buddy. I DON'T have to LIKE someone on a personal level to RESPECT the job they've done.
I hate my auto mechanic but he's a great mechanic and works for a fair price.

I'll probably do what I did the last election, vote for the least objective choice based on their performance NOT their personalities.

  Up till this point, my Liberal friends were bragging to me how much their 401k and stocks were soaring.
  Some reluctantly gave the President credit for it.
Then they tell me they wouldn't vote for him because they don't "like" him?

I don't get that but that's me.