Editorials & Other Articles

yuiyoshida

(41,818 posts) Thu Oct 23, 2014, 09:10 AM Oct 2014

Texas’ massive screw-up: How Rick Perry failed a basic test on Ebola

The Ebola crisis was supposed to be Perry's moment to shine. Instead he's hoping no one notices the incompetence

The Ebola situation in the United States seems to be under control, and there’s hope – assuming that no other infections occur – that the issue will cease to be an issue that opportunistic politicians can demagogue in the hopes of (literally) scaring up a few votes for themselves. And that’s a welcome development in terms of both public and political health here in the U.S. An expeditious end to the crisis should also help to restore a certain measure of faith in the public institutions tasked with preserving public health, and whose reputations have suffered some dings over the past few weeks.

But let’s stay on the politics of Ebola for just a little while longer and take a harder look at one person who stood to reap huge political benefits from the crisis, and not through fear-mongering about Ebola-infected terrorists or catching the disease at cocktail parties. I’m talking about Rick Perry, who found himself thrust into the center of the Ebola crisis after Thomas Eric Duncan checked himself into a Dallas hospital with a fever.

If you haven’t heard, Rick Perry is on a “comeback” tour. Heading into the 2016 election cycle, he’s working hard to project the image of a “new” Rick Perry – a bespectacled man of action who gets things done and is nothing like the stumbling boob who flamed out in the 2012 Republican primary. He’s has had great success in appealing to journalists and pundits who love political redemption stories and will help Perry nurture that narrative along.

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/23/texas_massive_screw_up_how_rick_perry_failed_a_basic_test_on_ebola/