Obama is amused that his daughters' school closed today

[DainBramaged]

Source: USA Today

When it comes to winter weather, President Obama just joked, "folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."

They need, he added, some "flinty Chicago toughness."

The president, joking with reporters before a meeting he's having right now with business leaders at the White House, said he was amazed this morning to hear that his daughters' school (the private Sidwell Friends) is closed today because of icy streets and sidewalks in the nation's capital.

"My children's school was canceled today, because of what ... some ice?" he said. As one of his girls pointed out, Obama added, "in Chicago, school is never canceled. ... You'd go outside for recess. You wouldn't even stay indoors."



Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/01/62036182/1?loc=interstitialskip

[aquart]

1. I know a Chicago schoolteacher complaining about that very thing.

[Critters2]

2. I wonder if the public schools were closed. nt

[countingbluecars]

4. The last I heard DC schools

had a 2 hour delayed opening. All surrounding districts are closed.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Monty Cty and PG County are closed for the day. nth

[qanda]

5. Yes, most schools are closed in the area

[MineralMan]

7. Here's a list of DC school closings today:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/weather/school_closings/?d=48

[elleng]

12. This is NOT list of DC school closings;

this is entire metropolitan area. Haven't read the whole thing, but haven't seen a DC school on the list.

edit; Sidwell is there.

[MineralMan]

25. Oh, OK...

[elleng]

9. I think not;

maybe delayed opening.

Private schools in DC (I live here) tend to close when suburban schools close because many students and faculty travel from suburbs, where weather, streets and roads are more difficult longer than in city.

[Xenotime]

3. That's a whole lot better than what *'s girls did. Way to set an example!!

[Captain Hilts]

6. There's just no budget to do so. And the icy stuff down here is harder to drive through...

than the powdery stuff up north. I learned I could actually bike in Toronto in snowstorms.

But it just isn't cost-effective for the DC area to have a lot of snow/ice equipment around.

I've lived in New England, Canada and Russia, and they have the equipment to keep things going. Those economies of scale just don't work down here in DC.

[kanrok]

10. Hey!

Are you callin' our snow wimpy?

[Captain Hilts]

11. After having three feet in three weeks in Toronto last year, no, BUT...

the dry stuff is MUCH easier to deal with than the sloppy stuff.

[No Elephants]

32. We up north get all kinds; wet, icy, snizzle, dry and powdery, etc., not only one kind.

[Captain Hilts]

39. We get only one kind down here. Sloppy, and inadequate means to deal with it.

I remember being snowed in in South Carolina. There were only 3 plows in the state.

Snowdrifts up to the roof line in Conn. were not a problem because there was a world of plows.

DC has other things to spend money on.

[Carni]

44. yeah but you guys have straight flat roads! eom

[NikolaC]

36. We Moved Back to

suburban VA in June after living in the Toronto area for three years. Today the private school that our son attends was closed due to the weather. That only happened TWICE in the three winters that we were living in the GTA. I guess that things get that way here because it is not as common an occurrence and they are not always prepared to handle the ice or a cumulation of a bit of snow. It's great fun for the kids though :).

[sandnsea]

19. It's slick in Oregon too

More moisture in the air. He'll have to apologize for that. Probably after slipping on the ice, life works that way.

[Carni]

43. You're not kidding

I am a MI native who relocated to NOVA three years ago...this snow on these death trap curvy mountain type roads is NOTHING like what we drove in, in my native lands of the north lol

Wimp? GUILTY AS CHARGED! lol

[Faygo Kid]

13. I'm working from home today. No way I could get to downtown DC.

Showered, dressed, walked out the door for work early this morning and got one step out the door. It was a solid, thick sheet of ice everywhere. I do, however, live in one of the highest, hilliest areas around DC, near Silver Spring, Maryland. Nevertheless, this storm was legit.

And I'm from Michigan. North of Chicago, as you know, so not much stops me. Snow is one thing, but the ice was way bad.

[Captain Hilts]

26. It was tough in B-ChCh this morning. nt

[LisaM]

38. Same thing in Seattle. I'm from Michigan too

But the bad weather in Seattle is different - solid ice, people don't even clean off their own sidewalks, and add in steep hills, and it's not very pretty. People are trapped in their neighborhoods because of the ice.

[Carni]

45. Thank you faygo kid!

I am glad to hear that I am not the only former Michigander who finds driving in the DC/VA/Maryland areas a little harrowing!

These hills and mountains look a whole lot different with snow and ice on the roads!:(

[4lbs]

14. Ok, so now how are the kids going to get the backing for their stories when they grow up

of walking to school a mile in the snow and ice, uphill, both ways?

:D

[katusha]

15. did he just politely call the Villagers wusses? n/t

[Captain Hilts]

28. Yes. He'll learn it's budget related. No SnowSWAT teams living in dorms to immediately...

hop in their plows, etc. like Toronto has. Chicago must have that too.

And Washington's 'MetroMelt' is about a third the size of Toronto's.

[Wizard777]

29. No just a variant of Up hill in the snow on bloody stumps because we couldn't afford feet.

What! You had feet to walk to school on? You don't know how good you had it. In my day.......

[AngryAmish]

16. People from all over the country live in DC

Us northerners know how to control our cars and can stop in snow and ice. Then we get rear ended by the southerners who don't.

[RedstDem]

18. DC is a very transient area

We have just as many people that know how to drive in snow and ice as we have people that haven't a clue. Only takes one to bring it all to a crawl.

[Captain Hilts]

24. But even if you know how to drive in it, this sloppy stuff is tougher than the powdery stuff.

I found myself in a white out on Route 12 in Upstate NY, just south of Watertown. It truly is like driving inside a ping pong ball.

But the stuff was D-R-Y. So, visibility was a problem, but traction not as much as I'd expected.

[madmom]

34. Back during the blizzard of '78, our neighbor was a recent transplant from Florida. We lived in an

apartment complex that shared a single driveway.He tried to go out the driveway during the blizzard,but,not knowing how to drive in snow, he had us all blocked in for 3 days.

[Bleacher Creature]

17. Moved to DC from Upstate NY. He's totally right.

Forget about how bad people are at controlling their cars in snow and ice -- people here sometimes ABANDON their car when there is "too much" snow.

[onehandle]

20. What a Chicago elitist.

He just doesn't get the folksy, laid-back way of those inside the beltway.

[Lilith Velkor]

40. He will, once he ends up ass-over-teakettle on the South Portico

There's a reason we are all doing the Tim Conway shuffle today.

[trotsky]

41. That would be funnier if it wasn't so easy to imagine some RW pundit *sincerely* making the claim.

But still funny. :)

[TlalocW]

21. Tulsa got hit with ice and snow as well

I gladly took the opportunity to go home early and then worked from home yesterday and again today. Not because I can't handle it, but because I don't trust Oklahomans on snow and ice (originally from Kansas, which used to get much more snow than Oklahoma even if it is just a bit north).

I also don't trust Dallas-ites in rain.

TlalocW

[rainbow4321]

22. No offense, Mr President, but Dallas-Ft Worth would like a word with you about

ice not being a big deal. Our cities/schools are shut down today, there are people in their cars/trucks stuck on the overpasses and some highways as we speak/write. Last time I heard, one of the local media websites had closing/delay lists had over 600 schools/businesses on it. And people are stranded at DFW airport, with 100+ flights cancelled.
And thousands are without electricity.
Why? Because of .21 inches of icy precip that fell over night.
Yep. Ice.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/012809dnmetweather.bf8dc81.html


Hopefully those stuck in their cars on the highway or at the airport aren't tuned into the news long enough to hear the ice joke.

[demodonkey]

23. OMG you don't want to drive in D.C. when there is snow or ice. 1" and they go nuts, LOL.

1" in D.C. and they either creep and crawl or floor it and slide into anything in sight.

Same in NYC. (And they don't have any snow plows -- have to put plows on their garbage trucks!)

I've lived in and driven in both places in all sorts of weather. Trust me, D.C. and NYC are bad when it comes to snow and ice.


-- from a native Pittsburgher, where controlling our cars in bad weather on our hills is practically born into us ha ha.

(well, actually starting to become a lost art too here, due to recent "nice" winters )

[KamaAina]

42. A close associate in NoVA calls it "the city of the snow wimps".

Then again, he and I grew up toghether, in Conn.

[Catshrink]

27. Does that mean they had to go to work with Dad today?

How cool would that be?

[Captain Hilts]

30. Not as cool as doing it on Dad's submarine in Groton CT!

[marshall]

31. At the price that school charges I'd be more than "amused"

By my calculation he pays $160 bucks per daughter for an education at Sidwell. Unless these missed "snow days" are tacked onto the end of the year I would be expecting a refund.

[No Elephants]

33. It's about the snowplows and budget for snow removal. And, whether people have snow tires, etc. Up

north, everyone expects snow and ice every winter. Budgets are in place, public and private people are ready with salt, sand, snow tires, chains, etc.

I live in the Northeast. I was in South Carolina one year when the sidewalks got a little slick. Regular TV programming was pre-empted. Trash pick up was thanked for risking lives to collect trash, etc. The bulletins and drama were making me laugh until my eyes teared.

But Obama is being cute. Snow in D.C. is more comparable to what would happen if it snowed in Hawaii than it is to when it snows in Chicago.

[qb]

35. It could have something to do with the 21 deaths attributed to the latest storm...

http://www.startribune.com/nation/38525707.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUss

Not too amusing in that context.

[hedgehog]

37. Can I say a little something about "having a budget to take care of the snow"?

It's called state and local taxes! I'm touchy about this because I am sick of hearing that companies are leaving New York State because of the state and local taxes. Well, guess what? We have open roads in the winter! We used to have a ton of libraries, inexpensive good state universities and public swimming pools, too, but we're losing those because our tax base is dwindling. I wonder if any of the companies that left here for places with a lower tax rate ever added up the cost of people not coming to work on days when there was 1 or 2 inches of snow?