Sunday, May 24, 2009

Say It Ain't So, Big O!

On one hand, yes, the White House is an extremely busy place.

Not only the hot button issues of the day, but also the always-overloaded, perfunctory business of any given day.

But, really, with all the egghead geniuses they have working there, couldn't they have figured something out, so this wouldn't have happened;

Sobbing Kindergarteners Snubbed for Steelers? ...Kids locked out of White House; officials say they were too late

Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment.

The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out.

[snip]

Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president's event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn't come in.

[snip]

A lot of preparing had gone into the trip. Conway Elementary teachers had been planning the trip for months, each child paid $20 for a seat on the chartered bus, and names were submitted to the White House for clearance.

Parents say they tried to make it on time, but their chartered buses hit heavy traffic that slowed them down substantially. They thought they were supposed to show up by 10:15, but they say they arrived at 10:25 instead, and couldn’t get in.
Adding to their shame, a White House spokesperson then threw the little tykes under-the-bus, claiming "the group was actually supposed to be there at 9:30, but they held the gates for the group until 10:30, 15 minutes longer than they told the group, but when they still hadn't arrived, they had to draw the line."

Yeah, that's the ticket, draw a hard-ass line on a bunch of kindergarteners ...You show them who's boss!

Think about, how, if the situation were reversed, and President Obama was going to be visiting these children at their school, and they are all packed into a hot auditorium, maybe, even, cutting into their lunch period, and the President's motorcade hits traffic, and arrives late, do you think the school would blow the President off?

I would speculate, heavily, that the Secret Service would have a SWAT Team ringing the place, with the school in the ever-growing ubiquitous state of "lock-down".

Here's a clue, Obama White House.

Maybe, just maybe, you could have let the kindergarteners go play on the Obama kids' much-publicized swing set, maybe bringing them some White House juice and cookies, and then the President, or First Lady, swing by for a 5-minute pit stop (well, in your lingo, that would be "photo-op").

That would have made for a much better headline, as opposed to getting tagged with making kindergartners cry.

C'mon there, get a glove, get in the game, will ya!


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