Thomas Eric Duncan's fiancée and others first exposed to him after he was symptomatic have officially been declared Ebola-free, but that isn't stopping our irresponsible media from going overboard and into panic mode over it, particularly the politics of it.

Frank Bruni sent my blood pressure into outer space yesterday with his op-ed blaming Obama for all things Ebola in the United States. It's all Obama's fault because, well, just because.

Never mind that private, for-profit hospital who ignored CDC protocols with regard to Ebola. The one that sent Mr. Duncan home with antibiotics for a deadly viral infection. Never mind that, because it's easier for lazy people like Bruni to blame Obama, and by extension, all Democrats everywhere.

This is why we cannot have nice things. We have no surgeon general, but that's of no moment because the whiny ass Republicans bleated for an Ebola czar and now that they have one, they're criticizing the president for not appointing a doctor.

Look over there and you'll miss the forest for the trees! Also, on November 5th there will be little talk, if any, about Ebola. I guarantee it. Just like there's no talk about the "border crisis" or the IRS or even Benghazi!.

If there is something to fear about Ebola, it's how private hospitals are dealing with it. A TPM reader paints a terrifying picture:

I have a perspective tying together today’s big news brouhahas. My wife is an ER nurse at a major urban hospital owned by the Hospital Corporation of America, the hospital chain once run by Rick Scott. It’s the largest for-profit medical system in the world, and is of course also notable for its ‘creative billing’ practices in the largest Medicare fraud settlement in history. Scott was booted from the CEO position following that fraud investigation, so he’s not directly responsible for current conditions in those hospitals.

But it is obvious to those who work there that the combination of lax training and toxic labor relations ‘leaders’ like him have brought to the company are emblematic of a big problem for US hospitals if a major outbreak of ebola or other infectious disease occurs. My wife’s ER has an ‘ebola cart’ with some lightweight protective gear and written instructions for putting on a PPE, but the instructions are a loose bundle of papers and the pictures don’t match the gear in the cart and has inaccuracies that put them at serious risk. It’s an object of gallows humor for the staff. That’s the totality of their training or preparedness so far. As we all now know, PPEs are not easy to put on and take off correctly. Even though nurses all have experience with standard droplet control (they see TB and HIV all the time), ebola is a special case. They have gone months and months without a nurse education director because no one wants to deal with their management and take the position. Her coworkers are clear that they will refuse to treat an ebola patient because they have woefully inadequate training in the correct procedures and lack proper gear.

So once again, I must reiterate: Why is it that the for-profit hospital system isn't taking any of the heat for their lack of preparedness? Why aren't states enforcing the protocols? Why is all of this Obama's fault? Of course it's not his fault. It's just convenient for lazy corporate journalists to blame it on him rather than actually thinking it through.

I seriously hope we kick Republicans' asses on November 4th and put these shameless hacks out to pasture forever.