You can't make carpenter out of a pile buck

It's a common joke in the building trades that you can take a carpenter and make a pile driver of him but you can't a pile driver and make him a carpenter. Dr. Thomas Freiden is evidence that you can take a doctor and make a political hack of him and Ron Klain is about to prove that you can't take a political hack and make a doctor of him. Somehow the public is to be reassured that by hearing from a hack who has no idea what he is talking about, who reports to someone who no one believes, Susan Rice, that it is receiving the best care that medical science can offer.
"Hmm, you seem to have contracted a case of nation malaise. There's a lot of that going around. Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."
Sadly, the world does not produce enough aspirin to to treat the headaches produced by the Obama administration. Dr. Freiden has taken a the CDC from an agency that enjoyed a 60% public approval rating just a year ago to one that is running just ahead of the Veterans Administration in a race to the bottom. This CBS poll shows the decline in public confidence in the past 18 months of governmental institutions.

Ratings of Government Agencies
(% who say Excellent or Good Job)

	Now	5/13 Gallup Poll
Federal Bureau of Investigation	51%	55%
Central Intelligence Agency	44%	40%
Dept. of Homeland Security	43%	46%
Environmental Protection Agency	39%	41%
Secret Service	38%	n/a
Centers for Disease Control	37%	60%
Food and Drug Admin	37%	45%
Internal Revenue Service	31%	27%
Veterans Administration	30%	n/a

There is one institution that still enjoys high public approval. The military rates a 73% approval rating but Obama is setting it up for a failure by sending it on a mission it is not equipped to complete. Only Obama could think paratroopers have the know how to build hospitals. Give me a break! The 101st has one of the most storied and glorious histories of any combat division. From the Battle of the Bulge in World War II to Hamburger Hill in Vietnam these men fought with a bravery most think went out of vogue a century ago but no where in its history is it recorded that anyone drove a single nail.
Yes, the know-it-alls, in the media will proclaim but they will be under the supervision of the Army Corp of Engineers. Great! The Army Corp of Engineers is for the most part a civilian agency whose chief responsibility is overseeing the construction of dams, bridges, locks and levees and keeping the country's navigable rivers navigable. They hire private companies to design the dams and bridges and hire other private companies to build them. They hire other companies to dredge the channels which means pumping sand from here to there. Necessary but not exactly high tech. Most of their work is on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. Like the NASA they are purchasers of technology not technologists. This is not to say that they are dull witted people but they do not nor does any Army sector build anything. The agency's forte is the accumulation of congressional earmarks as the above mentioned rivers flow through scores of congressional districts.
The modern Army has subbed out most commissary and security functions on its stateside bases to keep more troops combat ready. Why would anyone with an ounce of sense tinker with combat readiness to achieve some sort of international public relations coup? Is the deployment to West Africa merely a ploy to drag to military's esteem down to the VA's level? Thank God the country still reveres the military but no one would want Alvin York or Audie Murphy to wire their homes even if they were resurrected for that sole purpose. You can't make carpenter out of a pile buck.