Sarah Palin was presented as an Ebola policy expert tonight on Fox’s On The Record show. There, she accused President Obama of not “putting America first,” she seemed to think West Africa is a country, she wrongly suggested that Ebola has repeatedly cropped up in the U.S. and she suggested that the Obama administration would exploit the outbreak to further his radical agenda. BFF Greta Van Susteren never challenged a word.
Palin suggests Obama cares more about Africa than the U.S.
Van Susteren began the discussion by asking Palin about states' Ebola quarantine policies that are inconsistent with the CDC and whether President Obama should step in.
PALIN: I do think that there needs to be that quarantine but, see, this is par for the course - that Obama’s incompetency, his administration’s incompetency is really shining bright in this one. And if only President Obama would put America first this time. …There is a void of leadership here and the governors need to step up and step in.
Next, Palin suggests Obama will use Ebola to... something
Instead of challenging Palin’s baseless, gratuitous attack on Obama, Van Susteren asked what Palin would do if she were still governor of Alaska. And guess what? Palin seemed to have no idea, other than to revert to attacking Obama in a rambling suggestion that he was going to somehow use the situation to do something nefarious:
PALIN: I would talk to the other governors. And I betcha we would come to the conclusion that you can’t trust the Obama administration to really do much of anything right. So yes, we would take it upon ourselves to exercise our Tenth Amendment right and that is states’ rights, taking over some of these issues - especially that it’s proven that the federal government isn’t able to do.
But also a big picture here, Greta, that I don’t hear a lot of people talking about right now, is we know that liberals will capitalize on any crisis. In fact, this administration – some characters within it – have advocated for and even advertised their desire to capitalize on crisis. They’re not gonna let it go to waste. Those are some Saul Alinsky tactics, that Rules for Radicals. One of those rules is: yes, you capitalize on crises. It’s kind of a fear mode that they don’t mind the people of America being in, so that the people of America would think that they have to rely on Big Brother government to answer the questions for them and solve the problem.
It’s hard to believe Van Susteren didn’t recognize this as a load of hooey. But again she accepted it as legitimate analysis. She didn't even point out that Palin had not answered the question. Nor did Van Susteren note that right now it’s Republican Chris Christie who has acted more Big Brother-ish than the federal government.
Instead Van Susteren continued pretending Palin had something of substance to say on the subject. She asked if Palin thought "we should just basically quarantine" everyone who arrives from Africa, even if experts say they are not contagious.
Palin seems to think West Africa is a country
PALIN: If we really want to make sure that this virus is contained and if we cannot rely, unfortunately, on the federal government gettin’ their stuff together and gettin’ politics out of this issue and allowing the medical community to tell us what it is that needs to be done in each state – uh, with each airplane landing that would have passengers in there perhaps coming from West Africa or another nation that is suffering from Ebola, we’re going to have to demand of our leadership in Washington and on the state level to get politics out of this and allow the medical community to tell us factually what needs to be done.
Of course, doctors have told Fox “factually” what needs to be done. But again, Van Susteren acted as though Palin had just said something credible.
Palin wrongly suggests Ebola has repeatedly "cropped up" in the United States
PALIN: This isn’t the first time that we have encountered Ebola. Look in the last 40 years how many times it’s cropped up, along with other viruses, too.
Fact: 2014 is the first time Ebola has been seen in the United States. But Van Susteren did not correct the record.
Watch Palin play an Ebola expert below.
UPDATE: Politico fell for hooey, too.
Ahem? The medical community has already been telling us factually what needs to be done, and Fox has refused to listen.
I miss the good old days when the only Palin I knew about was Michael.
Now, yes, the states have some degree of control regarding disease outbreaks within their borders, but they HAVE to coordinate their efforts with Federal health officials before resorting to outlandish measures. That’s why Christie and NY’s Cuomo have been so harshly criticized by Federal health officials for their recent quarantine efforts—because they’ve unilaterally taken action that was NOT approved by Federal health officials (including, you know, folks with medical degrees).
Of course, I’d like to know how Palin would react if a state (or, more ominously, the Feds) went in and shut down a farm that was merely suspected of e. Coli contamination—purely in the name of “protecting” the people. (As if the right-wing, especially the Koch-bought Teabaggers, give a crap about “protecting the people” in any form or fashion.)
palin is too stupid to report on things this serious.
she should stick a finger in a dike and call it a day.
