CNN is reporting that President Obama will name Ron Klain to be his “Ebola czar.”
The president on Thursday signaled his openness to the idea to have one individual coordinating the entire federal response to any threat of an outbreak in the United States.
“It may make sense for us to have one person … so that after this initial surge of activity, we can have a more regular process just to make sure that we’re crossing all the T’s and dotting all the I’s going forward,” Obama said.
Klain is a former chief of staff to both Vice President Joe Biden and Al Gore. He’s an attorney who once clerked for the Supreme Court, and is currently President of Case Holdings and General Counsel of Revolution, an investment group. Clearly, Obama is going with an administrator with public relations kind of experience rather than a public health expert, but that’s probably exactly what’s needed. Because this is a more of a political position than a public health one.
You only need look at the national media to see that. Like this story, from NBC’s First Read team who clearly need someone to “hold their hands” through this “crisis.”
Bottom line: News stories with white-hot intensity no longer last. And that’s why it’s important for the White House to find an additional spokesperson to hold the public’s hand, as well as to ensure that all steps are being taken to prevent any more Ebola cases don’t pop up in the coming weeks.
If Chuck Todd is “desperately seeking a comforting face,” who is Obama to deny him? It’s not an entirely meaningless appointment—there is an awful lot of other stuff going on right now that the White House has to deal with, even though the entire national media has been infected with Ebola. Having a point person for communications on this will at least ease pressure on the rest of the team.
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But it’s not going to stop Republicans from fomenting Ebola panic, and it’s not going to mollify them into giving up on their latest screeching for a misguided travel ban.
