Just a Minute!

Ease up on the vice president, please (5/1/09)

     It’s time to give Joe Biden a break.

     The vice president has not committed another gaffe. He simply said on Thursday’s “Today” show what most of us have been thinking for the past week of swine-flu hysteria.

     When Matt Lauer asked what Biden would say to someone planning an air trip from the U.S. to Mexico, the vice president replied: “I would tell members of my family – and I have – I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now.”

     After the travel industry went a little nutso – especially because the official White House line is that curtailing travel in this fragile economy isn’t necessary – the vice president’s spokesperson said his intended message was that people should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico, and that if they’re sick they should avoid airplanes and other confined places, such as subways.

     Rubbish! We all know the vice president was being candid – and refreshingly off point – and that we’ve harbored similar thoughts as the media have rushed to create society’s latest bête noire out of a sow’s ear.

     No matter how bad this flu outbreak becomes, the media shouldn’t be suggesting a public official is being irresponsible for saying what the rest of us are thinking. That’s just sick.

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