Yep, When it Comes to Ebola, Team Obama is Just Making it Up as They Go

It was reported earlier today that late last week, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that all troops returning home from West Africa — in other words, the 4,000 or so that are already there — undergo a mandatory 21-day quarantine. If Hagel decides to take that advice, it will represent a major shift in the administration’s policy as it relates to fighting Ebola…especially on the heels of the White House’s fight with New York and New Jersey this weekend, which resulted in Governor Chris Christie finally agreeing to release nurse Kaci Hickox home to Maine.

So what’s going on here? White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked this afternoon about the conflicting policy, a trait that’s become all too common throughout the Obama years.

“Shouldn’t the policy have been in place when you decided to send troops to West Africa? Shouldn’t how you were going to treat those returning troops have been a matter of protocol then, rather than what appears to be being made up on the fly as we go?” asked a reporter.

‘Well, the commitment of Department of Defense resources was something that the president announced, I believe, just last month,” responded Earnest. “This is an ongoing effort by the Department of Defense to use their logistical expertise in West Africa to assist those first responders who are actually treating Ebola patients.”

The press secretary’s response didn’t even have a smidgeon of an answer contained in it, so he was asked again whether mixed messages are being sent.

“The Department of Defense policy has not been settled and implemented yet, and they will ultimately — that will be a decision that is driven by a variety of operational factors,” said Earnest. “What this administration is working to do is to coordinate with state and local officials across the country to put in place the policies that scientific experts tell us are in the best interests of the American people, and that’s what we believe should guide the policy decisions that are made in this country.”

Or, you know, he could have just admitted that they have no clue what they’re doing. As Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) pointed out over the weekend, just because we “know how to fight Ebola” in West Africa doesn’t necessarily mean we know how to fight it here in America. But it’s amazing how this team of idiots can manage to so frequently flip and flop on policy and then claim they’ve been consistent all along. When the time finally does come to impose the travel ban that a majority of Americans support, you can bet that Obama will claim he’s been in favor of one all along.