‘Ebola’ fear seems to be jumping forth from all sorts of sources at once, like a cheap Halloween “Boo!”. The US has always quarantined people when medically necessary going back over 100 years (maybe longer),
but this old news seems to be getting the “Oh, Aunty Em! Aunty Em!!!” treatment in a well organized and (dare I say it?) Well Funded way as we speak.
A talking point from a prior thread out-and-out blames president Obama for Ebola in the US and and asks “Is he the right president for the job?”. :dubious:
Personally, I’ve Never been a fan of coincidences and the fact that this is all generating 24-point font headlines [del]of free publicity, totally unregulated or limited by campaign finance law[/del]
all over the news in the week before important and close Senatorial Elections seems suspect. Perhaps I’m too suspicious, but I’m curious if anyone else here thinks this issue id being given a planet Jupiter sized “nudge”.
It’s not the new “Swift Boat”, it’s the new “Katriina”. Except that it’s a lame story, and there’s no presidential election. The only use of this is to say “You’re a Democrat, Obama’s a Democrat, Ebola is from Africa, and so is Obama, so vote for Republicans”.
The Hate Radio morons Limbaugh and Savage are doing all they can to gin up the fear in their delusional base. Nothing motivates Republicans like fear- fear of Ebola, fear of immigrants, fear of Muslims, fear of losing guns, fear of gays, … Same song, just a new verse.
I also would not say that there is any deliberate Swift Boating going on here.
However, it is easy to note the resonance of Ebola with Obama, for two reasons -
[ul]
[li]His African-American background.[/li][li]His signature achievement being Health Care legislation.[/li][/ul]
So, those two come together in an unanticipated way with this particular crisis. “What do you get when you mix Obama with Health Care? EBOLA!” :rolleyes:
Still, I am really not quite seeing a lot of traction with the association, in spite of the best efforts of his vocal critics.
There is an actual large outbreak in Africa.
The disease has been known for a while but this is the first time there has been a case in the US.
The disease is horrific.
There does not need to be any politics involved. The panic in the population might be overblown but it is organic.
I see Ebola and Katrina more as an “anything bad that happens is the fault of whomever’s in the Oval Office at the time.”
If an 8.0 earthquake struck California tomorrow, Obama’s ratings would plummet, like Bush’s would if such a thing had happened in 2006.
I think it is important to know why our government is weaponizing the virus’s
"A paper written by E. Johnson, N. Jaax, J. White, and P. Jahrling of US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, Maryland was published in 1995 in the International Journal of Experimental Pathology.
The abstract from the paper, Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus, informs:…"
Why they are testing them on healthy people in other countries?
and why they have a patent for the invention of Ebola.
Why did we pay a Canadian company to test the virus on healthy human specimens shortly before the latest outbreak in the same area where it has emerged.
No one sees as suspicious that the very first time since the corruption charges re: Bridge-gate that supposed presidential candidate Chris Christie opens up his mouth on a subject
(and then subsequently spending a week in thuggish attacks on all comers) is this subject? Granted, it does showcase his presidential qualities as less refined than those of an illegal dance club bouncer.
This may have started as organic, but this looks HIGHLY politically suspect at this moment. Its just too big a wave not to have a few GOP tricksters behind it pushing it with a wink and a Shhhh…! :dubious:
You are greatly underestimating the ability of the public to panic. If you said that 100,000 people will die from the flu there would barely be any discussion. But there is a disease that people perceive as making blood shoot out of every orifice. That is going to get the news talking and people panicking. No need for political operatives. And besides, these are midterm elections. That is always about individuals. “I hate those fatcats in Washington. Except my guy. He shook my hand and kept the Army widget factory open in town.”
If history shows us anything, its that a LOT can be forgiven in Washington if you are Competent, execute your policies successfully with a positive outcome, build consensuses instead of digging trenches,
create a surplus where there used to be a deficit, rule wisely and compassionately, rebuild the image of America as a present day success, Inspire your constituents to be involved and to want a better future
(not only for themselves but for the world), and if you still take time to actually listen to the people.
…except if you are sand-bagged by political hacks if you’ve had an affair with an intern…
As I wrote in a thread in GQ, the level of concern/panic over this issue in the USA is abnormally high by comparison with France at least, and according to another poster Europe in general, while it wasn’t the case in previous epidemic scares.
It makes me thinks there’s something artificial about it, and given some of the threads I read here, I suspect political shenanigans as the cause.
Has France or the European poster’s country had anyone with Ebola in their country yet? If not, then there’s no point in comparing them to the US or Spain.
As in Obama competently went there and competently looked Presidential and competently appeared with a Republican governor showing how he could rise above partisanship ?
IIRC…there wasn’t much time before the election to do anything else. Especially in comparison to earlier natural disasters in which other officials apparently didn’t act competently.