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Joe Biden Makes 'Cassandra Crossing' After Warning Against Travel

by Tina Kells | May 3, 2009 at 03:15 pm

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Vice President Joe Biden was criticised for publicly telling Americans to avoid travel in confined spaces to control the spread of Swine Flu, and now it seems he has ignored his own advice by making a trip home on a train.

Biden's train trip has been likened to the 1970's film Cassandra Crossing in which doomed passengers are trapped on a train with an aggressively spreading virus. While the Hollywood comparison may be a stretch the Joe Biden-Cassandra Crossing connection is a hit in the blogosphere.

This suspense film concerns a group of hapless passengers aboard a European transcontinental train bound from Geneva to Stockholm. They are infected with a viral plague from a Swedish terrorist, who is fleeing a botched attack on the U.S. mission at the fictional International Health Organization.

Biden was widely quoted as stating that he would advise family and loved ones to avoid travelling in confined spaces like trains or planes until the Swine Flu H1N1 crisis was under control.

The comments were seen as a vice presidential condemnation of travel and there was considerable backlash. So imagine the shock and surprise when Joe Biden returned home to Delaware from Washington via train in what is now being dubbed a vice presidential Cassandra Crossing.

One day after saying he wouldn’t travel in tight quarters because of the swine flu scare, Vice President Joe Biden rode a train Friday from Washington to Delaware.

Known for speaking freely, Biden told NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday that he had urged family members to avoid airplanes and subways for fear of contracting the H1N1 flu virus.

“I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said.

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QueensHart

at 17:59 on May 3rd, 2009

Wow, what a cast! I never saw this. Thank you for posting this Tina. Who knows when or what can happen in our future with the threat of chemical weapons etc.

One wonders how far out that seemed to people "back then" and now it's not so much

unbelievable!