http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/al...r-the-pope-so-they-made-his-plane-turn-around Can you believe it? Obama carries on his legacy of being late for virtually every public appearance, whether it be press conferences, meetings with Congress, campaign appearances or anything else. Thus time he and Biden were running late to greet the Pope on his first visit to the USA. The plane made several loops over North Carolina to get the arrival timing right. See the AirLive tracker image in the story. Blaming beltway traffic is hardly an excuse. Roads are cleared when the limo caravan is on the road. Alternatively, where was Marine One? Judging what I saw on TV, additionally Alitalia AZ4001 was parked for at least 15 minutes before AFB personnel went up the stairs to do whatever it is they do with the door. Can't make it up. No common courtesy, no respect. No excuse. Disgusting. Pfft.
I agree there's no excuse for Obama and Biden to show up late at the airport. They knew the Pope would be visiting and they should have planned everything so that they'd be at the airport to in time to meet, greet and welcome the Pope to the U.S. Maybe the two don't like the Pope that much?
It's not as if the pope just popped in unannounced is it! I'm sure this would have been planned months ahead so for him to turn up late shows a lack of respect really. As we know it's not the first time this as happened either so he can't have any excuses.
Was Michelle with them? We've all been there. "Hun, dinner reservations are for 7 and it's 645!" "I can't find a pair of shoes that matches my dress!!"
While it was a bit of a blunder to be late to the arrival, I think you people are forgetting that basically all of Obama's schedule outside of his home is dictated by mounds of secret service agents and it's not like he just didn't feel like getting out of bed in time. There was probably some mix-up with his transporters. Also with all of the issues going on in the world as we speak, Obama being a few minutes tardy to meet The Pope hardly seems important.
Spaceboytaylor, after six years one would think the WH staff and SS would plan ahead to compensate for his habitual tardiness. Gimme a break. No excuse, just flat out rude. But that's me.
I hate when people are late when I am meeting with them and promptness should be even more important when you are a dignitary. It is a respect issue and it is not like Obama would have hit traffic or could use the excuses that we all make.
I seriously doubt it was some reasonably avoidable delay. Moving the President is a matter of very high security and so predicting how long it will take is probably a nightmare. And while I can leave two hours early to make sure I get to an important meeting pretty much every quarter hour of his day is probably assigned to something that is very important to someone. Maybe take a leaf from the Pope. Was he upset? Well, then why should we be in his behalf? Plenty of things are unforgiveable if you are not a faithful follower of Jesus and His teachings (which I am not). This is not one of them.
I can't stand Obama, but I'm not going to make a big deal out of this. There's a lot of things that go into planning getting the president around. It's a pretty arduous process. Though Obama is known for being habitually late to just about every event. So this doesn't surprise me. Compared to some of the other things he's done it's really not a big deal at all.
