Breathy Reaganite Peggy Noonan is more than a doddering captive of her own apartment, peeking around corners for imaginary spirits that haunt her. She is also an expert on infectious disease screening processes. And a land, that we call, America.

Peggy's column, which appears in a real live newspaper each and every week, today opens with this: "There's the sense of an absence where the president should be." Is there? Yes there is, according to Peggy Noonan. Whenever we look at the TV to see a president, what is there? Just a blank space; clear; clear as the skies over Iwo Jima, on that fateful day. We see through it, to the future. A future in which we are asking: Where, o where, is that man (the president) who is there, or was, a minute ago?

Peggy has more to say, in the newspaper.

Decisions are made—by someone, or some agency—on matters of great consequence, Ebola, for instance. The virus has swept three nations of West Africa; a Liberian visitor has just died in Dallas. The Centers for Disease Control says it is tracking more than 50 people with whom he had contact.

The commonsense thing—not brain science, just common sense—would be for the government to say: "As of today we will stop citizens of the affected nations from entering the U.S. We will ban appropriate flights, and as time passes we'll see where we are. We can readjust as circumstances change. But for now, easy does it—slow things down."

It is not brain science. That would be strange, if it were. Brain science! Just imagine it. A frontier of wisdom to be had. This, though, is not that; this is a sense. I know what your first guest is: "it's a sense of absence where the president should be." But no. This is a separate sense—a sense of commonness. Commoners, coming into our country. Sickly and dirty. From abroad. Shall we not just say: stop. Stop, commoners. Halt!

We will ban commoners from coming in, on the planes. Which flights will we ban? Appropriate flights. We are the appropriate ones. We, the Americans. A beacon, in a harsh and dirty world. A sunbeam, reflected off the humble visage of Ronald Reagan; our moon, our stars.

Let's slow things down.

U.S. health-care workers at airports will not early on be organized, and will not always show good judgment. TSA workers sometimes let through guns and knives. These workers will be looking for microbes, which, as they say, are harder to see. A baby teething can run a fever; so will a baby with the virus. A nurse or doctor with long experience can tell the difference. Will the airport workers?

You know what they always say: "Microbes are harder to see than guns and knives." It's a classic line. I trot it out myself, on occasion. I am beloved for it. It is my greatest line. A pinnacle, like the mount of Rushmore. That is why the say it. They—the Americans. Countrymen, of thee.

Babies have fevers. Where is our president?

[Photo: Getty]