He may be the country’s most famous federal employee, but President Barack Obama wasn’t partaking in the government-wide snow day on Monday.
Instead of padding around the White House in sweatpants and slippers, the commander-in-chief suited up for a visit to Walter Reed National Medical Center, where he routinely visits wounded troops undergoing treatment.
As he strode across a snow-free White House South Lawn toward his helicopter, Obama joked he’d cleared the wide swath of grass himself.
“I shoveled all this stuff!” he shouted over Marine One’s idling engine.
Obama, of course, isn’t likely to have cleared the 22 inches of snow at the White House himself. Before the flakes began falling, his spokesman predicted the first family would remain “warm and toasty” in their residence during the blizzard.
Unlike most of the capital city’s residents, Obama has the benefit of a short, mostly indoor commute. Without the worry of treacherous roads or a delayed Metrorail, he was spotted working in the Oval Office well into the afternoon on Friday before heading upstairs to ride out the weather.
That’s a welcome change from his experience earlier in the week, when an unexpected storm snagged his motorcade in gridlocked traffic on its way from Joint Base Andrews.
And while there’s no evidence Obama himself enjoyed any time in the snow, his official photographer Pete Souza posted snaps and video of the Obamas’ Portuguese Water Dogs Bo and Sunny stamping through the drifts.
Vice President Joe Biden may have utilized the best strategy for riding out the winter storm: avoid it altogether. Instead of attempting a landing at Andrews Saturday evening, the vice president and his wife rerouted their return flight from Istanbul to Miami, spending a night in the South Florida sun before heading to their home in Delaware to dig out.