Man bites dog is news. But Biden bites dog is even bigger news. And we don’t mind saying for all to hear: The vice president got one right this week.
At a speech delivered for an Amtrak event in Philly, Biden knocked La Guardia Airport in a section addressing some of the shortcomings of America’s transit infrastructure. Here’s what he said:
“If I blindfolded someone and took them at 2 in the morning into the airport in Hong Kong and said, ‘Where do you think you are,’ they’d say, ‘This must be America. It’s a modern airport.’ But if I blindfolded you and took you to La Guardia Airport in New York, you must think, ‘I must be in some Third World country.’ ”
Biden’s bluntness ruffled some New York feathers. The mayor snarked this wasn’t the veep’s “finest moment.”
The Port Authority shot back that it has just unveiled a new, 10-year capital plan that includes $8 billion for airport revitalization.
But if we take the Port Authority at its word, its defense is that if we come back in 10 years we’ll have a great airport. And in contrast to Mayor de Blasio, we applaud the vice president for not mincing words about shortcomings obvious to anyone who travels through La Guardia.
We’d go further: In his remarks, Biden went on to lament America’s global rankings on infrastructure quality. “It’s embarrassing,” he said. “And it’s stupid. It’s stupid. That puts us literally behind — they rank us behind Barbados. Great country. One airport.”
What he’s saying is that if New York wants to remain a world-class city, we have to hold ourselves to world-class standards. And unless anyone in New York wants to argue that La Guardia really is as good as Hong Kong International Airport, we’d say this round goes to the veep.