Airline industry complains about Slow Joe Biden

The airline industry was hurt last week by run-away-mough VP Joe Biden. They don't like losing business because he can't control his mouth. (Dan Quayle had a fraction of the infractions by Biden and the worst was when he was reading a cue card written and held up by the teacher of the classroom he was in.)

Boyd Group International, Inc. - Aviation Hot Flash & Insights:
There must be political reincarnation. Dan Quayle is back. And he looks just like Joe Biden. It's Gaffe City with our new Veep.

The classic, of course, was when Biden urged some guy in a wheelchair at a political rally to stand up and take a bow. Later, during the campaign debate he proudly stated he regularly talks to the common folk at some local home town cafe. A cafe that'd been closed for years.

The latest is the Veep's advice last week on national television, urging people to avoid airline travel for fear of getting swine flu. It was yet another example of how really oblivious this administration is to aviation, how it works, and the enormous value it has to the national economy.

There Is A Message Here. And It's Not About Swine Flu. This is not a question of whether Biden should be passing out medical advice or not. Over the past six months, he's proven himself to be a laughable loose cannon, without much credibility, but causing repeated embarrassment and distraction to a new president trying to deal with all sorts of mayhem. Obama's probably put a child gate on the doorway to the Oval Office, just so he can get some work done without Biden barging in.

The real story is the total lack of understanding of the damage that dumb comments from uninformed public officials can do to an industry that's a vital part of the US economy. Telling the nation to stay off airliners was no different in Biden's mind than telling citizens to stay out of the rain. His view is that both can be detrimental to your heath, see.

What Biden is oblivious to is that rain doesn't have thousands of employees dependent on it for their livelihood.

His inept, thoughtless comments directly threatened the jobs of thousands of people in the airline industry. He has no expertise whatsoever in disease control. And quite obviously, Biden has no clue that a recommendation from the Vice President of the United States might have consequences, even from a walking parody like him.

To be sure, the ATA, the Washington Post, and others immediately came out swinging, informing the public that Biden was "misinformed" or he "misspoke." Biden's office clumsily tried to backtrack, only making the guy look like a bigger buffoon. But the damage was already done.