Congratulations, we have a new czar. Under mounting pressures to cut CDC director Thomas Frieden due to his nonsensical leadership during America’s Ebola scare, President Barack Obama has announced the creation of a new position, Ebola Czar. Swell.
As Mr. Obama’s “Ebola czar,” Ron Klain, 53 years old, will be charged with coordinating the administration’s response across a variety of government agencies, including greater efforts to detect, isolate and treat Ebola patients in the U.S., White House officials said Friday.
Mr. Klain’s appointment comes amid growing concerns about mismanagement in containing the virus’s spread after one of the Dallas nurses flew to Cleveland shortly before being diagnosed. Another Texas health-care worker has self-quarantined on board a Caribbean cruise ship, officials said Friday.
Klain has served as chief of staff to two vice presidents: Al Gore and Joe Biden. He also served under Biden in the 1990s, when Biden was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2000, Klain was general counsel to Gore during the Florida recount—a role that Kevin Spacey played in the movie Recount.
Best of all, Klain was the one in charge of the stimulus package in 2009 that was managed with such transparency and discipline. President Obama said we needed someone like Klain who would be a point person for the Ebola response will “make sure we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s”. Like he did with the stimulus package. Yeah, because that worked so well.
Is Ron Klain knowledgeable in epidemiology or the Ebola virus? Press secretary Josh Earnest struggled to tell the White House Press Corps what the newly-appointed “Ebola Czar” even knows about the lethal virus that has America on edge.
“What does Ron Klain know about Ebola?” questioned CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta.
“Let’s talk about…let me re-state why this person…why the president believes it was important to add this person to his team,” Earnest began in his response. “The president wanted somebody who could serve in a coordinating function, to manage our implementation of our whole of government approach to this Ebola situation.”
“To more directly address your question, what we were looking for was not an Ebola expert, but rather an implementation expert, and that’s exactly what Ron Klain is,” Earnest said.
Wow. If that doesn’t make it clear that the President is incapable of leading, I don’t know what will. The President is less interested in dealing with the dangers of Ebola than looking better before the mid term elections.
He is not looking for a serious leader in epidemiology who will take a systematic approach organize the healthcare providers and administrators in how to treat and control the spread of Ebola, rather he is looking for someone who will give political cover and minimize damage to the administration.
Just as he described the Islamic State as neither Islamic or a state, the Ebola Czar is neither an Ebola expert or Czar in charge of anything of consequence.
