Why the White House has yet to tape this man’s mouth closed is beyond me. I understand that you can’t just appease the nation at the expense of preparing it, but telling people to avoid subways, planes, and schools when we won’t even close the border sounds absurd. (If you can’t watch the video, here’s what Biden said.)
Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.” A little more than one hour later, Biden rushed out a statement backing off.
“I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show.. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. …
“So, from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation. If you’re out in the middle of a field when someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it’s a different thing.”
That sent the White House, not looking forward to shutting down the airline industry or sending Americans into a massive panic, into a pathetic bit of spin. Here’s the video of Robert Gibbs fielding a question from Jake Tapper. It’s quite painful to watch as Gibby tries to convince the White House Press Corps that Biden meant to say something entirely different than what he actually said.
The left insists that Dick Cheney was evil. I think I’d prefer Darth Cheney to Vice President Dumbass.
by Stephan Tawney on Thu, Apr 30, 2009