Obama's Ebola Victory Lap
"People were understandably afraid. And, if we're honest, some people stoked those fears," the president said.
At no point Wednesday did President Obama utter the words "I told you so." But that was the underlying message from a White House event that brought him together with the doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals whose advice he relied on in the battle against Ebola.
Four months after he took a beating from political opponents who mocked his competence and derided the expertise of those giving him advice, a triumphant Obama surrounded himself with those experts and declared a milestone has been reached in the battle against Ebola. It was not, he stressed, final victory, but an important "transition" in which he could bring home almost all the U.S. troops he dispatched to Africa to help the doctors.
Even with the memories of that withering criticism still fresh, the applause of his White House audience was so embracing and the statistics at hand so encouraging, the president clearly was pleased with the way things have worked out. So while he was very careful not to repeat the words uttered by his predecessor about the Iraq war—that this was "mission accomplished"—this was, without doubt, a victory lap.
He reminded his audience that he ignored the criticism of his actions and the political advice to impose quarantines and travel bans. Even though polls showed that the country was afraid and distrustful of the reassurances coming from Washington, Obama stuck with the experts.
"Remember, there was no small amount of skepticism about our chances," he said with some understatement. "People were understandably afraid. And, if we're honest, some stoked those fears. But we believed that if we made policy based not on fear, but on sound science and good judgment, America could lead an effective global response while keeping the American people safe, and we could turn the tide of the epidemic."
On Wednesday, he could not resist recalling the bad, often-partisan advice he was getting in October over his response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and the fears of it spreading to the United States. The coverage on cable news channels was nonstop, and the partisan assault was fierce and unrelenting with elections only weeks away. There was enormous pressure to cancel flights from the affected regions and ignore the doctors who said that would be counterproductive.
He did not name those he thought had been proven wrong this time. But he dismissed them as "those who like to fan fears." He recalled late October as "three weeks in which all too often we heard science being ignored, and sensationalism."
Looking back on what was said in those three weeks, the criticism does, indeed, look sensational and often less than fully informed by what the doctors knew. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted the president's "incompetency," adding, "You can't trust the Obama administration." Donald Trump objected to aid workers being allowed into the country and tweeted, "Ebola has been confirmed in NYC with officials frantically trying to find all of the people and things he had contact with. Obama's fault." He added in another tweet, "A TOTAL incompetent."
The deputy chief of staff to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted, "Before Obamacare, there had never been a confirmed case of Ebola in the U.S." His boss lamented that Obama lacked "sufficient seriousness" about protecting the American people.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky drew "Three Pinocchios" in the Washington Post's Fact Checker column for insisting that he knew better than the Centers for Disease Control on how to catch Ebola. He suggested people were more at risk of being infected with Ebola than AIDS, saying Ebola is "incredibly contagious." Accusing the administration of downplaying contagion, he said, "You start to wonder about a basic level of competence."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/obamas-ebola-victory-lap/442554/
"People were understandably afraid. And, if we're honest, some people stoked those fears," the president said.
At no point Wednesday did President Obama utter the words "I told you so." But that was the underlying message from a White House event that brought him together with the doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals whose advice he relied on in the battle against Ebola.
Four months after he took a beating from political opponents who mocked his competence and derided the expertise of those giving him advice, a triumphant Obama surrounded himself with those experts and declared a milestone has been reached in the battle against Ebola. It was not, he stressed, final victory, but an important "transition" in which he could bring home almost all the U.S. troops he dispatched to Africa to help the doctors.
Even with the memories of that withering criticism still fresh, the applause of his White House audience was so embracing and the statistics at hand so encouraging, the president clearly was pleased with the way things have worked out. So while he was very careful not to repeat the words uttered by his predecessor about the Iraq war—that this was "mission accomplished"—this was, without doubt, a victory lap.
He reminded his audience that he ignored the criticism of his actions and the political advice to impose quarantines and travel bans. Even though polls showed that the country was afraid and distrustful of the reassurances coming from Washington, Obama stuck with the experts.
"Remember, there was no small amount of skepticism about our chances," he said with some understatement. "People were understandably afraid. And, if we're honest, some stoked those fears. But we believed that if we made policy based not on fear, but on sound science and good judgment, America could lead an effective global response while keeping the American people safe, and we could turn the tide of the epidemic."
On Wednesday, he could not resist recalling the bad, often-partisan advice he was getting in October over his response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and the fears of it spreading to the United States. The coverage on cable news channels was nonstop, and the partisan assault was fierce and unrelenting with elections only weeks away. There was enormous pressure to cancel flights from the affected regions and ignore the doctors who said that would be counterproductive.
He did not name those he thought had been proven wrong this time. But he dismissed them as "those who like to fan fears." He recalled late October as "three weeks in which all too often we heard science being ignored, and sensationalism."
Looking back on what was said in those three weeks, the criticism does, indeed, look sensational and often less than fully informed by what the doctors knew. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted the president's "incompetency," adding, "You can't trust the Obama administration." Donald Trump objected to aid workers being allowed into the country and tweeted, "Ebola has been confirmed in NYC with officials frantically trying to find all of the people and things he had contact with. Obama's fault." He added in another tweet, "A TOTAL incompetent."
The deputy chief of staff to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted, "Before Obamacare, there had never been a confirmed case of Ebola in the U.S." His boss lamented that Obama lacked "sufficient seriousness" about protecting the American people.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky drew "Three Pinocchios" in the Washington Post's Fact Checker column for insisting that he knew better than the Centers for Disease Control on how to catch Ebola. He suggested people were more at risk of being infected with Ebola than AIDS, saying Ebola is "incredibly contagious." Accusing the administration of downplaying contagion, he said, "You start to wonder about a basic level of competence."
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/obamas-ebola-victory-lap/442554/