NEWS AND OPINION:
Yes, the presence of a deadly disease in Texas has benefited a certain governor. What with intense and alarming media coverage of two Ebola cases in the Lone Star state, Gov. Rick Perry has risen to the opportunity and gotten decisive indeed. It has paid off. Republican attitudes toward Mr. Perry have “improved significantly,” says YouGov polling analyst Kathy Frankovic, who reports that Mr. Perry’s favorability ratings have quickly jumped 16 percentage points — rising from 51 percent in late September to 67 percent by late last week.
While President Obama has yet to appoint an Ebola “czar” to coordinate U.S. response to the disease, Mr. Perry has already launched the “Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response,” complete with an aggressive emergency plan and hands-on director Dr. Brett P. Giroir, who warns of an “interconnected world” and vows that Texas is “fully prepared for the worst-case scenario, no matter what form that may take.”
Mr. Perry’s bodacious moves could burnish his image as a 2016 presidential hopeful, and those promising polling numbers should remain stable for a while, and possibly even improve. He should ready another kind of battle plan, though. None of this has been lost on his critics.
“The only ’spread of Ebola’ in the U.S. was caused by a private hospital in a red state,” tweeted MSNBC host Joy Reid on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Perry still has GOP competition in the White House derby. The aforementioned Economist/YouGov survey also reveals that Republicans have not lost their affection for a young vice presidential hopeful, as well as a Southern preacher. Rep. Paul Ryan garnered a 68 percent favorability rating among Republicans in the same poll, while former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee pulled in 67 percent. And here are the current numbers for the rest of a very close field: Sen. Rand Paul (65 percent), Sen. Marco Rubio (65 percent), Jeb Bush (63 percent), Sen. Ted Cruz (62 percent), Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (53 percent) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (48 percent).
A RISING CASE OF E-E-E-EBOLA
SEE ALSO: Health care worker in Texas tests positive for Ebola
“Ebola shouldn’t be the reason people aren’t seeing their family for Thanksgiving,” advises Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at the Mayo Clinic. But he understands the alarm. “Ebola is an agent that evokes a lot of fear, and can result in societal disruption. There’s a reason why it’s considered a possible bioterrorism agent. So any time you have any cases in the United States, there is a heightened amount of anxiety.”
And that anxiety is growing, says a new Harris Poll/HealthDay survey, which reveals that about a quarter of Americans plans to cut back travel plans because of their Ebola concerns. Three-fourths of the respondents also fear that people carrying Ebola will infect others before showing symptoms themselves.
“But that simply can’t happen, according to both Dr. Tosh and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the poll states. “Ebola can only be transmitted by people who have fallen ill and are already showing symptoms — and even then only if a healthy person comes into contact with the body fluids of a sick person.”
AND ONE FROM TRUMP
“I don’t know if President Obama isn’t stopping the flights from Ebola torn West Africa because he is stubborn, stupid, or just doesn’t care!”
— Donald Trump, in a tweet Sunday
SEE ALSO: Hispanics want Obamacare for illegal immigrant ‘dreamers’
DEMOCRATIC PARTY PARTYING
Forget crisis, the money march is on. This is a week of high profile Democratic fundraising, beginning Monday in the fabulous Aria Resort in Las Vegas; Hillary Rodham Clinton journeys to Nevada to raise money for Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid. Vice President Joseph R. Biden, meanwhile, heads to Florida to raise money for Charlie Crist.
After playing his 200th round of golf over the weekend, President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cross the bridge to Virginia on Tuesday for one of those elite “roundtable” fundraisers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; at least Air Force One is not involved here. Well, not that we know of, anyway. Mr. Biden arrives for a spell in Columbia, South Carolina also on Tuesday, on behalf of the state’s Democratic Party. The following day. Mrs. Pelosi travels to New Jersey to raise money for congressional hopeful Donald Norcross.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama once again heads off to New York — Long Island specifically — to benefit the Democratic National Committee, so fire up the airplane. The same day finds Baltimore the host city for, among others, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mrs. Pelosi and potential presidential hopeful Gov. Martin O’Malley — this to benefit U.S. Senate hopefuls. Last but certainly not least, former President Bill Clinton will be in New Hampshire on Thursday as well for the state party’s annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner, appearing with Gov. Maggie Hassan, for the benefit of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
A HISTORIAN’S BATTLE PLAN
Fight the Islamic State “the World War I way,” advises William Crocker, an American Spectator contributor and author of “The Yanks Are Coming!” a U.S. military history of World War I. Here’s his advice for contemporary strategists:
“We shouldn’t neglect our own history in putting down jihadists. General John J. ’Blackjack’ Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War One, had not only fought Indians in his time, he had fought fanatical, jihadist Moros in the Philippines. Many Moros took an oath to become blade-wielding assassins of infidels (sound familiar?). They drugged themselves and wrapped themselves so tightly in binding cloths that they could charge right through rounds fired from an Army issue .38 caliber revolver. The Army responded by issuing .45 caliber pistols, which packed enough punch to stop a Moro permanently,” Mr. Crocker observes.
“In dealing with the Moros, Pershing acted as both reformer and tamer. In destroying the jihadist menace, he was always prudent to avoid unnecessary casualties to his own men — and he always aimed to kill as few of the enemy as possible. Pershing did not try to change the Moros; he did not campaign against polygamy or slavery or any other aspect of their culture. Instead, he turned their culture to his advantage, asking them to deliver malefactors’ heads, which they happily did. Pershing buried slain jihadists with pigs so that they faced the prospect of going straight to hell — according to their Mohammedan beliefs — rather than inheriting a paradise of virgins,” the author says.
He adds, “The saying ’the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is always highly applicable to the Muslim world. In the First World War, men like Lawrence of Arabia and General Pershing knew something about how that worked. It’s their knowledge that we should be tapping again.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 88 percent of U.S. investors say political discord in Washington hurts “the investment climate.”
• 82 percent say events in the Middle East have a negative impact on investing.
• 80 percent say unemployment over 6 percent has a negative impact.
• 78 percent cite the widening gap between wealthy and middle-class Americans.
• 74 percent say the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has an impact.
• 70 percent cite U.S. immigration policy; 65 percent cite financial conditions in Europe.
• 51 percent cite federal policy and decision on interest rates; 40 percent cite the current interest rates.
Source: A Gallup poll of 1,011 U.S. adults with investable assets $10,000 or more conducted Aug. 15-24 and released Friday.
• Mumbles, caterwaul to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.