Obama Is Too Cool for Crisis Management
By the time President Obama gave in and appointed an Ebola czar on Oct. 17, the White House response to this latest national crisis had already run a familiar course: the initial assurance that everything was under control; the subsequent realization that it wasnt; the delay as administration officials appeared conflicted about what to do; and the growing frustration with a president who seemed a step or two behind each new development. Meanwhile, public anxiety mounted as cable news hysteria filled the vacuum and shaped the perception of the unfolding crisis.
Obama calmly insisted there was nothing to worry about when the news first broke of Thomas Eric Duncans infection. Its important for Americans to know the facts, he said on Oct. 6. Because of the measures weve put in place, as well as our world-class health system and the nature of the Ebola virus itself, which is difficult to transmit, the chance of an Ebola outbreak in the United States is extremely low. It soon became clear the health system wasnt prepared; the virus spread, infecting two nurses who had treated Duncan. One of them had called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to report having a fever, yet was still allowed to board a commercial airliner on Oct. 13. The CDCs guidelines were declared absolutely irresponsible and dead wrong by Sean Kaufman, director for safety training at Emory University Hospital, where two American missionaries from West Africa were treated for Ebola in August. But Obama clung to his position for two more weeks, even after it began to look ridiculous.
Only with public confidence slipping and dozens of congressmen calling for a ban on travel from West Africa did Obama submit to the kind of grand theatrical gesture he abhors: He canceled a campaign trip to hold an emergency cabinet meeting and appointed Ron Klain, a veteran political operative, to coordinate the governments Ebola response. Then the pageantry of White House crisis response reached its familiar end point, with anonymous aides telling the New York Times that Obama was seething at the botched response and the criticism that hed mishandled the crisis. Photograph by Hugh Gentry/Reuters; Animation by Steph DavidsonBehind this weeks coverIf all this feels frustratingly familiar, many former White House officials agree. The difficulty in formulating a response echoes the fitful efforts to address the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, the chemical weapons attacks in Syria, the advance of Islamic State, the rollout of healthcare.gov, and even the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo.
Administration veterans describe Obamas crisis-management process as akin to a high-level graduate seminar. He responds in a very rational way, trying to gather facts, rely on the best expert advice, and mobilize the necessary resources, says David Axelrod, a former White House senior adviser. On Ebola, Obamas inner circle has included Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, along with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, and Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco. By all accounts, Obama treats a crisis as an intellectual inquiry and develops his response through an intensely rational process. As former CIA Director Leon Panetta said recently in a TV interview, He approaches things like a law professor in presenting the logic of his position.
Six years in, its clear that Obamas presidency is largely about adhering to intellectual rigorregardless of the publics emotional needs. The virtues of this approach are often obscured in a crisis, because Obama disdains the performative aspects of his job. Theres no doubt that theres a theatrical nature to the presidency that he resists, Axelrod says. Sometimes he can be negligent in the symbolism. Lately, this failing has been especially pronounced. Few things strike terror in people quite like the specter of Ebola. An Oct. 14 Washington Post-ABC News poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) say they fear a widespread outbreak in the U.S. Cooler heads have noted that more Americans have been married to a Kardashian than have died from Ebola. But that fun fact misses the point: People fear what they cant control, and when the government cant control it either, the fear ratchets up to panic.
Obamas presidency is largely about adhering to intellectual rigorregardless of the publics emotional needs
Americans views of deadly viruses such as Ebola are shaped by Hollywood movies such as Outbreak and Contagion, and when the prospect of a global pandemic arises, we expect a Hollywood president to take charge. Obamas Spock-like demeanor and hollow assurances about what experts are telling him feel incongruous.
A bigger problem is that the Ebola experts in whom Obama has invested so much faith have often turned out to be wrong. Frieden and the CDC misjudged the ability of health officials to contain the virus and were caught flat-footed when it spread. We wanted so badly to assure the public not to be frightened that we have frightened the public by having the credibility of public health questioned, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The whole notion that something as slippery and capricious as Ebola was as easy to contain as Obama confidently predicted was almost certainly misguided to begin with. Medicine can be a very humbling profession, Dr. Steven Beutler, an infectious-disease specialist at Redlands Community Hospital in Redlands, Calif., recently wrote in the New Republic, and after more than 30 years of practicing infectious-disease medicine, I have learned that the unanticipated happens all too often, especially where microbes are involved.
Its true that Obamas task is made considerably more difficult by the antipathy that has marked the Republicans response to Ebola. Most seem more intent on stopping Democrats than on stopping the contagion. Their ads politicizing the virus have only added to the climate of fear. And their filibuster of Obamas surgeon general nominee, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has also silenced an authoritative voice on public health, for reasons as small-minded as those dictating the partys line on Ebola: Theyre carrying water for the National Rifle Association, which objects to classifying gun violence as a public-health issue.
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Obama Is Too Cool for Crisis Management