Politico Ridiculously Accuses 2016 GOP Hopefuls of Fomenting Ebola Panic

Nice try.

The likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates — except for Perry — are practically lining up to warn that the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to keep Ebola out of the United States, now that Dallas is dealing with the nation’s first confirmed case.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky declared on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that “this could get beyond our control” and worried, “Can you imagine if a whole ship full of our soldiers catch Ebola?”

Sen. Ted Cruz — Perry’s Texas colleague — raised the prospect of restricting or banning flights to the West African countries that are hardest hit by the disease, noting in a letter to the Federal

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin floated the idea of quarantining airline passengers in the affected African countries before they could fly out. “We’re learning a lot about how it’s spread but the question is ‘How can a person just jump on a plane and get here without a quarantine period of 21 days,’ which I believe is recommended,” he said on a radio talk show Wednesday. A spokesman for Ryan says the congressman misspoke and was referencing a recommendation to be monitored for 21 days.

And Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says the United States should cut off flights from those countries. “President Obama said it was ‘unlikely’ that Ebola would reach the U.S. Well, it has, and we need to protect our people,” he said in a statement Friday.

None of what was mentioned above is “panic.” Each is a real-world, rational way of dealing with the problem. At this stage, some may be more premature than others. However, some of us are beginning to a) think the government may not be truthful about what is going on and/or b) isn’t competent enough to react properly even if it isn’t.

If anyone is mildly panicking, it is solely because the Dallas situation has been mishandled in many ways and we were assured recently that the situation wasn’t going to happen anyway.

Kudos, however, to Politico for carrying some water for the administration in advance.

Good doggies.

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