At times like this I like to remember what Michelle Obama explained when she was sneeringly smearing Sarah Palin as a bimbo: asking Biden to be his VP showed that "Barack's not afraid of smart people":

Vice President Joe Biden today warned against commercial air travel or using the subway as the swine flu virus continues to spread. "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said on NBC's "Today Show" when asked what he would tell family members contemplating a trip to Mexico during the flu outbreak. "You're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes; it goes all the way through the aircraft."... Biden today also said he would advise against using the subway for anyone with another means of transportation. "If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing," Biden said. "If you're in a closed aircraft, or closed container, or closed car or closed classroom, it's a different thing."

Remember when the Bush administration was endlessly mocked - literally for the better part of a decade - for highlighting what they thought were commonsense precautionary measures like buying duct tape? That was totally fair since it was a really dumb thing to say. But at least they were explicitly and implicitly urging people to go out and support the economy.

Biden - in the kind of high-pitched whimpering that he seems distressingly prone to - was effectively urging Americans to boycotting a critical US industry that is on the brink of total implosion. I thought the Obama administration reserved that kind of treatment for private citizens who refused to be blackmailed out of their money.

Which brings up a second question: anyone know a "website number" for not being a colossal tool?

References and previously after the jump...