Bob Franken

Here’s a concept: Let’s come up with an idea that would make things worse even if it worked, which it wouldn’t.

That would describe the proposal to prevent all people coming from the three West African nations devastated by Ebola — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — from entering the United States.

The U.S., it seems, is also ravaged by a growing disproportionate hysteria about Ebola, and most of all by cynical politicians, largely conservatives, who are exploiting the alarm for a chance to score some points against the Democratic president in the days leading up to the election.

They’re tryin...