Obama: Washington Needs Some Chicago Winter Toughness

A couple checks out reflections on the underside of the 110-ton stainless steel Anish Kapoor sculpture called “Cloud Gate” and nicknamed “The Bean” at Millennium Park on Thursday in Chicago. Nam Y. Huh / AP

Speaking to the fact that most schools in the Washington area were shut down on Wednesday due to a little melting temperatures, rain, sleet and then overnight freezing temperature, President Obama said "My children’s school was canceled today because of what, some ice?" Obama added "As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled. In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you’d go outside for recess in weather like this. . . . You wouldn’t even stay indoors. So it’s — I don’t know. We’re going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town."

A spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools said snow, ice or cold has not shut down the system since Jan. 4-5, 1999, when a storm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow on the city. The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, which the Obama girls attended, has closed only once in the last 30 years because of winter weather, said David Derbes, a longtime faculty member.

Malia, 10, is a fifth-grader at the Sidwell campus in northwest Washington. Sasha is a second-grader at the elementary school in Bethesda, Md.

Are Washingtonians weak, a reporters asked the president? "I’m saying," the president replied carefully, "when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don’t seem to be able to handle things."

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