memeorandum: Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to 2 Vice Presidents, Is Named Ebola Czar (New York Times)

1:15 PM ET, October 17, 2014

Top Items:

Jake Tapper / CNN:

First on CNN: Obama will name Ron Klain as Ebola Czar — (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images) — Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama will appoint Ron Klain his “Ebola czar,” knowledgeable sources tell CNN. — The president on Thursday signaled his openness to the idea …

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, American Spectator, Gawker, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Mashable, The Verge, Associated Press, FOX News Radio, Washington Post and Althouse

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Ron Klain is a great choice for Ebola czar — Something I learned during the first two years of the Obama administration, when the staff infighting was at its worst: if you wanted to get somebody to say something nice, ask them about Ron Klain. — Klain entered the administration as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and New York Magazine

New York Times:

Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to 2 Vice Presidents, Is Named Ebola Czar — WASHINGTON — President Obama will appoint Ron Klain, a former chief of staff for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joseph R. Biden Jr., to manage the government's response to the deadly virus as anxiety grows over its possible spread …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite

Steve Mason / ABC News:

Hospital Worker Who Handled Ebola Samples Is on Cruise Ship — A Dallas health care worker who handled clinical specimens from an Ebola-infected patient is on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, with the worker self-quarantined and being monitored for signs of infection, the State Department said in a statement.

Discussion: USA Today, Balloon Juice, Truth Revolt, 6abc.com, CNN and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Greg Botelho / CNN:

Nurse may have had symptoms of Ebola longer than first thought — Are you on the front lines of Ebola? We'd like to hear your story. — (CNN) — A nurse with Ebola may have shown symptoms of the virus as many as four days before authorities once indicated, meaning that she might …

Discussion: Jezebel, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, TODAY, Instapundit and Business Insider

New York Times:
Keeping Ebola at Bay

Discussion: Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, Mediaite and Business Insider

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Charles Krauthammer: Ebola vs. civil liberties

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Rachelle Blidner / NY Daily News:
Ebola patient Nina Pham arrives at Maryland hospital after thanking Texas medical staff in emotional video

Discussion: New York Magazine, FOX News Radio, 6abc.com and Gawker

Ford Vox / CNN:
Why CDC chief must go

Discussion: Fox News, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Business Insider and The Scoop Blog

Wall Street Journal:

Biden's Son Hunter Discharged From Navy Reserve After Failing Cocaine Test — Lawyer Pursued Military Service Relatively Late as a Public-Affairs Officer — WASHINGTON—Vice President Joe Biden 's son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine …

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Biden's son discharged from Navy after testing positive for cocaine

Discussion: Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Truth Revolt, Scared Monkeys and Raw Story

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Republican Joni Ernst Admits Why Republicans Really Hate Obamacare — Another secret recording. — Shares — Conservatives have made a series of specific predictions about the effects of Obamacare — overall costs would rise, insurers would flee the exchanges, premiums would go up, the ranks of the uninsured would not even fall.

Discussion: Raw Story, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, Washington Center …, msnbc.com and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Joni Ernst's hog-castrating ideology, revealed!

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo and Liberaland

Jonathan V. Last / Weekly Standard:

Six Reasons to Panic — As a rule, one should not panic at whatever crisis has momentarily fixed the attention of cable news producers. But the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has migrated to both Europe and America, may be the exception that proves the rule.

Discussion: American Prospect

Politico:
Why a travel ban wouldn't work

Discussion: The Federalist and Mediaite

Philip Ewing / Politico:
Obama OKs reservists for Africa Ebola fight

Discussion: Allen B. West

New York Post:

Alarm after vomiting passenger dies on flight from Nigeria to JFK — Demonstrators demand a travel ban outside the White House on Oct. 16 to stop the spread of the Ebola virus. — A plane from Nigeria landed at JFK Airport Thursday with a male passenger aboard who had died during the flight …

Discussion: Fox News, The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Times, Vox Popoli and Weekly Standard

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties — In August, Tom Steyer and seven campaign advisers sat in a small conference room in Coral Gables, Fla., trying to figure out how to save the world. Steyer, who is 57, has a fortune of roughly $1.5 billion …

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and Hullabaloo

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Insiders Blame Rove for Covering Up Iraq's Real WMD — There's one man, some Republicans say, who kept the public from learning about the chemical shells littered around Iraq. He was Bush's most important political adviser. — Starting in 2004, some members of the George W. Bush administration …

Discussion: Raw Story, BillMoyers.com, American Thinker, American Spectator, Balloon Juice and The Dish

Sylvia Westall / Reuters:

Islamic State training pilots to fly in three jets: Syria monitor — (Reuters) - Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a group monitoring the war said on Friday, saying it was the first time that the militant group had taken to the air.

Discussion: Lawfare, New York Magazine, Defense One, Outside the Beltway and Guardian

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

Perspectives on Inequality and Opportunity from the Survey of Consumer Finances — The distribution of income and wealth in the United States has been widening more or less steadily for several decades, to a greater extent than in most advanced countries.1 This trend paused during …

Discussion: New York Times, New York Magazine, Guardian and Washington Center …

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

What Markets Will — In the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of “Deus vult!” — God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not. — Now, that was a long time ago, and …

The Hill:

Ebola, Wall Street stock slide deepen '14 gloom for Dems — The Democrats' midterm prospects took a beating this week as concerns over the Ebola virus and a jittery economy churned up countless grim headlines and darkened an already-dissatisfied national mood.

Politico:
Obama's Ebola challenge

Discussion: ABC News and ABC News

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Arizona Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules — Judge also refuses to put his ruling on hold during any possible appeal. — Following an appeals court ruling allowing Idaho same-sex couples to marry, a federal judge also struck down Arizona's ban on same-sex couples' marriages.

Discussion: Joe. My. God.

Mark Steyn / Steyn Online:

Protocol Theatre — Thomas Frieden has now got his Protocol Ali routine down pat: … Gotcha. You can't get Ebola on a bus or a plane, you can only give it. Good to know. Thanks, Doc. — The Centers for Disease Control is one of those elite federal agencies that people hitherto assumed was …

Discussion: Power Line, Weekly Standard, Truth Revolt, CBS Dallas and Daily Mail

Stuart Stevens / The Daily Beast:

How Older Voters Will Decide Your Future — Older voters are the electorate's fast growing demographic - and a major reason Republicans can win big in 2016. — The political impact of shifting demographics is a hot topic. Judging from the coverage, it would be easy to assume …

Discussion: Washington Post