Saturday, October 18, 2014

The Polticians Tackle Ebola

Ebola has arrived in the United States, and our nation’s leaders are wasting no time. They’re consulting experts, holding hearings, and demanding action. Politicians across the spectrum are united in a common goal: exploiting the crisis to win the next election.
William Saletan William Saletan
Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. He’s the author of Bearing Right.

It’s a tricky maneuver, because they don’t know much about Ebola. But they know their shticks, and that’s enough. With a tweak here and a twist there, they can shoehorn Ebola into their customary talking points. Here are the emerging favorites.
1. The war on Ebola is like the war on terror. After an ugly decade in Iraq, some Republicans took a break to dabble in civil libertarianism. Now they’re ready to get back to being the Daddy Party. President Obama is “not protecting our country and our families from Ebola,” says Rep. Tom Cotton, the Republican Senate candidate in Arkansas. Cotton promises to “rebuild our military and keep your family safe and secure, whether the threat is terrorism or disease.”
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2. Obama has no strategy. When Obama admitted he was thinking through his options against ISIS, Republicans turned his remark into a gaffe. Now they’re applying the same spin to Ebola. Rep. Cory Gardner, the Republican senatorial nominee in Colorado, says Obama has no “strategy to deal with the Ebola virus.” Thom Tillis, the GOP’s candidate for senator in North Carolina, says Obama has “no plan” to stop people who would “come to this nation and threaten our safety and security.” On Thursday, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy convened a hearing on Ebola. He opened it by bashing Obama’s “failed policy” and the “demonstrated failures of the current strategy.”
3. Obama thinks Ebola is the JV. First he called ISIS the junior varsity of terrorism. Then he downplayed Ebola as a junior virus. Ed Gillespie, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Virginia, chides Obama for having discounted the risk of Ebola reaching the United States. So does Bobby Schilling, a Republican House candidate in Illinois. At Thursday’s hearing, Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton sarcastically applauded Obama for leaving the campaign trail “to finally focus on the crisis.”
4. We’re on the case. Having ignored Ebola until it reached the United States, elected officials are scrambling to look as though they’re on the ball. The first step is to say you’ve talked to an expert. The number of politicians who claim to have spoken in the last week with Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is almost mathematically impossible. But if you can’t get Frieden on the phone, go to Plan B. In a debate on Wednesday, Gardner told voters he had talked to a nurse. Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas, where the virus had arrived from Liberia, said she had talked to a county judge. Don’t worry, said Davis: Everything’s under control. That was two weeks ago. Oops.
5. Screen all passengers. If Ebola is just like terrorism, the solution is obvious: airport security. At Thursday’s hearing, Murphy portrayed Ebola carriers as infiltrators, noting that they could mask their fevers with ibuprofen to sneak through checkpoints. Republicans on the committee complained that screening 94 percent of passengers wasn’t good enough: Everyone had to be checked. Democrats don’t seem inclined to resist the GOP’s demands. “I don’t think any measure is too extreme,” says state Sen. Connie Johnson, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Oklahoma.
6. Ban West Africans. Before the Ebola hearing, Republicans were clamoring for a ban on travel to the United States from the affected countries. Frieden and other health officials testified that this was a bad idea, in part because it could easily be circumvented (by stopping over in Europe), and it might force carriers to hide their symptoms. Republicans were unmoved. After the hearing, they went straight to the TV cameras and delivered precooked talking points they had imported from Iraq and Syria. With colleagues arrayed behind him, Upton called for a “no-fly zone from that region of the world.”

10 comments:

  1. Talk radio host Michael Savage said President Barack Obama wants to infect America with Ebola.

    "There is not a sane reason to take three- or four-thousand troops and send them into a hot Ebola zone without expecting at least one of them to come back with Ebola, unless you want to infect the nation with Ebola," Savage said.

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  2. Michael Savage plays to the audience and arm waving is permitted but behind most rants is an element of truth.

    Troops being sent to Africa are receiving about 4 hours of training according to USAMRIID at Ft. Detrick and are trained by a team of 2 per every 50 soldiers, on how to deal with infectious diseases. I spent more time than that learning how to dawn a gas mask and check it for a proper seal. The nurses in Dallas apparently became infected from removing there protective suit. Soldiers are trained to apply force necessary to accomplish a mission up to and including killing. These men and women signed up to potentially face an enemy that they could engage and eliminate... This is not a job for our military and the thinking that puts them in Africa and in harm’s way against an invisible foe does not compute with me.

    As for Obama’s reckless disregard for the people of this nation.... It is almost certain that the respiratory problems our young people are having is as a result of unhealthy people being transported and distributed to every state. This is on the President’s shoulders without question. When my wife applied for residency she had to do so from outside the US and part of the process was a chest Xray for tuberculosis, inoculations for things she might have picked up in our travels and a complete physical carried out by a specific doctor requiring that we travel from one side of Britain to the other for the appointment.

    I don’t really see how these troops can dodge all the risks and return home with someone coming into contact with this virus... I hope someone is looking over them because I don’t think that our President is.

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  3. One more thought with respect to the focus and gravity with which this president is giving to the spread of a disease which has about a 70% success rate in killing those who acquire it.

    Does anyone here find justification for installing Ron Klain, his go to man on Solyndra as the ‘Ebola czar’?

    While I will agree that the ‘czar’ program is one of patronage as it receives no vote from the populous nor does it receive advise and consent from the Senate but in this case, and for the most part doesn’t do that much harm, except of course to the checks and balances that are suppose to protect us from Russian style czars lead by a single head of government, in this case it is dangerous as he has no business directing what could turn out to be and epidemic.

    It’s time to dismantle Czars and get back to nominated positions that are reviewed and approved by the Senate (Regardless of how boot licking it is) We have a Surgeon General, acting though he is, who must be imminently more qualified then investment adviser extraordinaire Ron Klain.

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  4. As this problem is now politicized in the pages of this and other public debates, I wonder how long before the idea, unlike the virus will be directed in one particular direction. How long before Savage and others in similar positions will blame your President for the catastrophic events likely to ravage the nations of the world. I see just from this thread that there is the nucleus for such a campaign.

    I also see from whence the criticism comes. I agree with Mick and TS concerning the deployment of US troops to the region. Australia is a staunch ally of the US and our government has firmly refused to send any personnel to the region. I think it is time for your nation to cease, just this one time, to interfere in the internal problems of another country. We have the UN and the WHO, support these organizations and let them get on with the job they are trained to do.

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  5. Our troops are not being sent to treat ebola. They are building the infrastructure to help these countries fight ebola. These 3rd world countries need someone to help or this ailment will become a worldwide epidemic. Hopefully their contact with actual sick patients will be minimal as planned.
    King here is the dilemma. If Obama does as you suggest stay out of the business of another country, then the conservatives politicians of my country will start the usual chorus of "where's the leadership." So he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't, like any other issue that has popped up across the world in the last 6 years.

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    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWMxColSa68

      That is up there with Eleanor Cliff's comment on Ambassador Stevens not being murdered...

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    2. Angie,
      I went to the link you quoted and could not understand more than ten words because they were all talking over each other. What was almost frightening were the associated stories on that particular site.
      Would you be kind enough to advise as to who is Eleanor Cliff and what is her object in public life. I may, thanks to you, have stumbled upon a new source to understanding modern America. My thanks and
      Cheers from Aussie

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    3. Eleanor and Slate are two remaining remnants of the shrill emasculated so called intellectual left.

      Eleanor hasn't been relevant since the 70's.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Of course we shouldn't take this Ebola thing too seriously.... more Americans have been killed by drone strikes than ebola infection.....

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