Omicron Complicates President Biden's Messaging

When it rains bad news, it pours.

With Americans giving low marks to President Biden in two crucial areas - handling of Covid and the economy - news broke about Omicron, a new variant from South Africa that the WHO has said will take several weeks to understand.

For White House economic advisors, Omicron was terrible news. In a trial balloon piece in the New York Times on Wednesday, they had argued that inflation had reached record highs because consumers, driven by pandemic fear, spent more on goods than services. A daily drumbeat of negative Omicron news would exacerbate their worst fears.

President Biden's strategy has been to listen blindly to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Science's Ubermensch, even though Dr. Fauci's stewardship has been mixed with numerous inconsistencies in his positions, including the origin of the novel coronavirus.