Obama to DC: Man up!

[Beau_Ouiville]

When he’s right, he’s right. I rode my bike to church Sunday when it was 18 degrees out. These Washington folks are wussy.

"Do schools in the Washington area shut down at the drop of a snowflake or glint of an icicle?

That is the view of President Obama, who poked fun this morning at his daughters’ school – Sidwell Friends – and others in the region for declaring a snow day. “Because of what?” he asked. “Some ice?”

Many suburban school systems were closed today, and District schools delayed opening because of last night’s freezing rain, which coated cars and roads with a thick gloss of ice. Private schools, including Sidwell, tend to follow the lead of public schools in school delays or closures. Sidwell has campuses in Bethesda and Northwest Washington.

It’s a common sentiment among parents from up North or out West – the Obamas, of course, just moved from Chicago – that schools around Washington close for weather that would barely register in the snow belt.

“We’re going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town,” Obama said this morning. “I’m saying that when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don’t seem to be able to handle things.”

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012801448.html?nav=rss_email%2Fcomponents

 

[Marauder]

The difference that most people don’t realize is that DC/MD/VA schools weren’t closed due to snow they were closed due to ICE. Many of you that live in the snow belts don’t get ice that often. Most of the streets and sidewalks in the suburbs were solid sheets of ice. Also when you live in the snow belts, you have studs for tires, chains, etc. Having those things on your cars in this area is illegal due to the fact they tear up the roads.

Many of the people that work in DC actually live in the suburbs.

It is all well and good that the man in the presidential bubble can complain, but for those that actually have to deal with it, it was a pain in the butt.

 

[Indyann]

We had 12 inches of fresh snow fall during the night, with a couple of episodes of freezing rain. Most all the schools are closed here.

All the children in public school here must ride the school bus, even if they are just a couple of blocks away.

I don’t think the parents would be too happy if their child was injured in a school bus accident. It is a matter of safety for the children. Not a matter of being a “wuss”.

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Studs are illegal out here in the snow belt and I’ve seen neither chains nor snow tires in a decade. Of course, I realize there isn’t a decent incline in this city.

I came to work today at twelve degrees wearing on my head the same thing I wear year 'round: a baseball cap! Man up.

 

[peregrinus_WA]

I lived in the DC area for 7 years and I can tell you it is total panic there on the prediction of snow. Yes, prediction of snow. They think every flurry will be a Nor-Easter and they go after bottled water, milk, bread, and toilet paper.

And that is not the worse of it. You may of heard stories of people leaving their cars in the middle of the interstate and walk away because it is “snowing to heavy” and there is “snow on the road”. I can tell you from first hand experience that is true.

When I lived there, there was even a station that would make fun of this panic by playing the theme from psycho whenever there was snow in the forecast.

 

[captkras]

The difference that most people don’t realize is that DC/MD/VA schools weren’t closed due to snow they were closed due to ICE. Many of you that live in the snow belts don’t get ice that often. Most of the streets and sidewalks in the suburbs were solid sheets of ice. Also when you live in the snow belts, you have studs for tires, chains, etc. Having those things on your cars in this area is illegal due to the fact they tear up the roads.

Many of the people that work in DC actually live in the suburbs.

It is all well and good that the man in the presidential bubble can complain, but for those that actually have to deal with it, it was a pain in the butt.

Actually Chicago gets plenty of Ice. I’m originally from Michigan, and we got both.

However, I agree that the schools were closed mostly due to ice. Many of the western counties closed because they are rural ones.

In addition to the Ice, however, the DC area also gets a lot of transient people, who don’t have any/much experience in driving in winter conditions. Typicaly our snowfall/ice conditions don’t last too long (a few days and its gone), and we don’t get it all season, so its hard to learn how to drive on the slick stuff, and keep that skill set.

 

[peregrinator_it]

When he’s right, he’s right. I rode my bike to church Sunday when it was 18 degrees out. These Washington folks are wussy.

"Do schools in the Washington area shut down at the drop of a snowflake or glint of an icicle?

That is the view of President Obama, who poked fun this morning at his daughters’ school – Sidwell Friends – and others in the region for declaring a snow day. “Because of what?” he asked. “Some ice?”

Sorry don’t agree. It’s not about the cold, it’s about the ice. (We’ve had many colder days than today in DC this winter.) That was the statement of a man who doesn’t have to walk anywhere.

I walked to work this morning (as I always do.) The sidewalks are covered with sheets of ice you could skate on (and it’s worse where people shoveled as we had a good bit of sleet last night-it forms a much slicker surface than the snow. For the first leg of my twenty minute walk I take residential streets, so I walked in the streets; the second leg of my walk involves a main avenue, so I had to brave the sidewalk. That was bad news. It doesn’t take much to fall & break a leg or an arm or a wrist.

I imagine schools that close do so partly out of concern for students who walk to school. (Albeit, I imagine most of the students who attend Sidwell Friends have families wealthy enough to afford a car…)

(*Full disclosure: I’m originally from CA, so I suppose my perspective might be warped.)

 

[Sabda]

The difference that most people don’t realize is that DC/MD/VA schools weren’t closed due to snow they were closed due to ICE. Many of you that live in the snow belts don’t get ice that often. Most of the streets and sidewalks in the suburbs were solid sheets of ice. Also when you live in the snow belts, you have studs for tires, chains, etc. Having those things on your cars in this area is illegal due to the fact they tear up the roads.

Many of the people that work in DC actually live in the suburbs.

It is all well and good that the man in the presidential bubble can complain, but for those that actually have to deal with it, it was a pain in the butt.

Exactly, over here schools have also been canceled due to the ice. I had to sub Tuesday and left work at 4 and it was a very slippery ride home. Many of the kids out here live in rural areas and the sand/salt simply does not make it out here onto our rural roads.

 

[wabrams]

Between the “I won” comment, attacking Limbaugh, and now this, Obama just doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

 

[Cracker_Mom]

Washington , DC’s basically a Southern town. Southerners don’t deal well with ice & snow. That’s just the way it is.
Driving in DC’s stressful at the best of times & in ice & snow: forget it.

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Between the “I won” comment, attacking Limbaugh, and now this, Obama just doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

Well, that’s not to say he was wrong on any of the three. Odd that this light topic garnered such negative commentary.

And, as noted by Obama, in Chicago the schools would be open and the kids would be out for recess in similar weather. Man up!

 

[Indyann]

Well, that’s not to say he was wrong on any of the three. Odd that this light topic garnered such negative commentary.

And, as noted by Obama, in Chicago the schools would be open and the kids would be out for recess in similar weather. Man up!

Just one more reason I am happy to not live in Chicago. Seems every day I have to add to that list. Nice place to visit, etc. etc.

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

A woman got on the bus I was on last seek carrying a pair of cross-country skis. The high school in Evanston, IL in more than 100 years has never closed due to inclement weather. Not once.

Obam’s girls’ school in Chicago has closed once in 30 years due to the weather. Once. This includes blizzards and double-digit negative windchills. Folks around here know that your breath will form ice crystals in your mustache.

As they say in Montana, the cold drives off the riffraff. Its going to be hot today – the temp may hit the twenties. Man up.

 

[Marauder]

And, as noted by Obama, in Chicago the schools would be open and the kids would be out for recess in similar weather. Man up!

It’s just a huge lack of tact. I don’t go to Hawaii in Feb. and tell the locals to man up for feeling cold when it is warm to me. I don’t go to Chicago in the summer and tell the locals to man up when they are complaining about the heat and it feels perfectly fine to me.

He is a vistor to DC, if he doesn’t like it he can go home. I know most DC residents and commuters would love not to have to deal with his motorcades blocking off traffic all time.

What’s next is he going to go to a foreign country and complain about the smell?

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Any place you go you can lead by example. Part of that is telling the locals to carry on – its only a little weather.

 

[Indyann]

Any place you go you can lead by example. Part of that is telling the locals to carry on – its only a little weather.

Fortunately, some public officials are more concerned with the safety of their citizens, than with an appearance of “toughness.”

 

[Steeltemplar]

Any place you go you can lead by example. Part of that is telling the locals to carry on – its only a little weather.

I somehow doubt that Obama is giving an actual example of anything which an average citizen is capable of doing. Even if he were to ride a bicycle to work, for instance, he would be flanked on all sides by secret service and probably have at least one media van following him.

It is proper that the President of the United States should have privileges which the average people don’t. However, we should not pretend that is not the case. Obama is not toughing anything out, he is not giving anyone any kind of example.

 

[Neil_Anthony]

Doesn’t he understand that areas that aren’t used to ice and snow aren’t equipped to handle it, and have to take special precautions? If they don’t salt the roads, and the roads aren’t designed for ice and snow, its not safe to use them.

Is this his first time travelling beyond Chicago? He doesn’t seem very bright.

 

[Steeltemplar]

Doesn’t he understand that areas that aren’t used to ice and snow aren’t equipped to handle it, and have to take special precautions? If they don’t salt the roads, and the roads aren’t designed for ice and snow, its not safe to use them.

Is this his first time travelling beyond Chicago? He doesn’t seem very bright.

You know, if this were Sarah Palin, the media would be attacking her as “ignorant of places outside Alaska” and people would be huffing and whining about how “it would be scary for her to be a step away from the presidency if she doesn’t know about weather conditions elsewhere”.

Of course, because it is “The Messiah”, the lefty yes-people are going to treat this like they treat just about everything he says - as infallible.

 

[Cracker_Mom]

You know, if this were Sarah Palin, the media would be attacking her as “ignorant of places outside Alaska” and people would be huffing and whining about how “it would be scary for her to be a step away from the presidency if she doesn’t know about weather conditions elsewhere”.

Of course, because it is “The Messiah”, the lefty yes-people are going to treat this like they treat just about everything he says - as infallible.

Good point!