President Obama to blame for all the snow on Washington, DC streets?

A Washington, DC councilman said the city didn't move fast enough to clear the streets because of comments President Obama made last year.

Why is it taking so long to clear the streets in Washington, DC? Because of President Obama.

A DC Council member pointed the finger at President Obama last night for the city's failure to quickly remove snow from the DC streets.

Responding to a Chris Matthews tirade blasting the city government for slow snow removal, DC Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr. said the city was hesitant to get federal help because of comments President Obama made last year after schools were closed due to a much less significant storm.

"I think we should have called for an emergency," Thomas explained on MSNBC's Hardball. "Our mayor should have asked the president to declare a FEMA emergency."

Why didn't this happen?

"We were a little afraid because ... when it snowed the first time when the president first got here, he said, 'Wow, we're closing [the schools].' So we got a little afraid and we under-reacted as opposed to when we overreacted when we had a little bit of snow," Thomas said. (See video below).

Obama did lampoon the city last year when his daughters' schools were closed. We told you about it here.

"My seven-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess in weather like this," Obama told reporters last January. "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.''

Matthews would sure like to see some toughness. Last night he said that DC "had the weather of Buffalo and the snowplowing capability of Miami."

"Why can't a government town do a government job," Matthews yelped. "We the people don't have snowplows. We can't control the streets, the government does."

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