Clinton, Bush & Truman rose to meet crises. Trump is failing on COVID.

One of the main jobs for any president confronting major crisis is distinguishing merely unimaginable options from the genuinely impossible. Indeed, history indicates that a president relying on gifted help and applying courageous leadership can take a problem that others deem unsolvable and — against overwhelming odds — make it go away. This is the kind of history that Donald Trump might have consulted fruitfully as the coronavirus seized this country — and his presidency.