The Benghazi attack came just before the 2012 election. Ebola arrived just before this year’s midterm, which in the minds of the administration and perhaps nobody else means that any travel ban on West Africans is unacceptable because somewhere a leftwing blogger might accuse the administration of racial profiling.

The only evidence we have for this theory, admittedly, is the pre-emptive ranting about a “racist” response to Ebola in blogs and publications the administration cares about, including the New York Times. We also have the administration’s wholly unpersuasive arguments for why it won’t block private West African arrivals from the most afflicted countries.

Politicians are experts at camouflage, and none more so than politicians who adopt ideological views that serve them well in their own constituencies but are an acquired taste in the larger electorate. The Obama administration, after six years, is especially cursed by a kind of programmed disingenuousness. Mr. Obama was aware when he was selling ObamaCare that some would lose their insurance. He accused Mr. Romney in their second debate of wanting to keep troops in Iraq “to this day”; now that Iraq has become a disaster, Mr. Obama claims he wanted troops all along and blames former Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki.