This & That!

EBOLA – There is news this morning that yet another Dallas health care worker has tested positive for the Ebola virus. The yet unidentified nurse is the second health care worker to have contracted the disease while treating Thomas Eric Duncan.
CDC Director Thomas Frieden lamented not having sent a more robust rapid response team to the Dallas hospital immediately upon learning of the first Ebola case. “That might have prevented this infection,” Frieden said. Frieden promised that in the future the CDC will send a rapid response team to any hospital in the nation that diagnoses another Ebola patient.
Since news of the Ebola outbreak in Africa first broke Director Frieden has been dismissing any concerns of the CDC’s ability to prevent and/or contain a similar outbreak here in the US. “We know how to do this,” Frieden repeated flippantly. Apparently not!

FOLLOW THE MONEY - Political polls may tell you that a particular race is too close to call…anybody’s game to win. But if you want to know how party officials really feel about their candidate’s chances all you have to do is follow the money.
With the mid-term elections just days away party officials are making crucial decisions about where their advertising bucks can have the most impact. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent over $2 million advertising dollars to help Democratic hopeful Alison Lundergan- Grimes unseat incumbent Mitch McConnell. Yesterday the DSCC pulled their ads; essential conceding the race to McConnell. That’s too bad. Lundergan-Grimes had been giving Senate Minority Leader McConnell a real run for his money. Recent polls had her trailing McConnell by only two points; well within the margin of error. But in their one and only debate Lundergan-Grimes stumbled a bit when she refused to disclose who she had voted for in the last presidential election on the basis of her constitutional right to privacy. She had the chance to right herself the next day but chose instead to double down on her response. Apparently that was enough for the DSCC which decided its funds were better spent elsewhere.
Mitch McConnell is the poster boy for everything that is wrong in Washington. His hypocrisy is palpable. For 30 years he has preached small government politics while reeling in billions in federal pork for his state. As Senate Minority Leader his highly publicized efforts to stop Barak Obama’s agenda has been instrumental in bringing progress and economic growth in this country to a standstill. If ever there were a politician that should NOT be returned to Washington it is Mitch McConnell. Lundergan-Grimes ran a good race. She just couldn’t push that message over the finish line.