Storm showed Murphy is no leader (Opinion)

As Thursday's nor'easter brought New Jersey to a grinding halt, Gov. Phil Murphy preached patience.

"Patience is the word of the day," he told News 12. "Folks need to keep the faith and have patience," he told WCBS 880-AM. How much patience were people supposed to have when they were trapped in Newark for hours moving only a matter of feet? How much patience were West Orange school children supposed to have when at 10 p.m. their parents were getting alerts that 11 buses they were trapped on were rerouted to a local diner so they could eat and wait for roads to open? When you're in your car, in the dark, running out of gas, literally trapped in this nightmare, patience only goes so far.

By Friday morning Murphy held a press conference where at first he came out defiant, blaming weather reports. "The forecasts were lousy, and I'm not going to let the forecasters off the hook."

Really Murphy? Funny because our chief meteorologist Dan Zarrow was forecasting this storm on Monday saying commuting on Thursday could spell trouble. By Wednesday he was calling 6 inches in the areas of 78 and west of the Turnpike. Granted the storm worsened day of, but there was plenty of advance notice that this was coming and we all know any nor'easter can worsen. A true leader is prepared. And Murphy is no true leader.

He went on to say, "This is a regional event. New Jersey didn't get singled out. This whole region got crushed."

Dear Mr. Murphy, New Jersey didn't elect you to be the governor of the region. They elected you to serve as governor of New Jersey. To say it was also bad elsewhere is saying it wasn't your fault. To say it was the fault of weather reports is to say you were not prepared for the possibility of an even worse storm. To come to the microphones at a press conference and show the disregard you did is to show you are unfit for this job.

Almost grudgingly he finally managed a weak buck stops here moment, but it was insincere and fell flat. Promises to do better are falling on deaf ears. Deafened perhaps from spending all night in freezing cold cars trapped on highways. Keep in mind this was not the first time Murphy has dealt with this. Remember back in March the major storm that caught the state unprepared? He was new then. Perhaps we could chalk that up to a grace period. But not now.

What happened Thursday to New Jersey never should have happened. I've heard stories of DOT crews sitting parked in staging areas ready to go and the word to mobilize just was not coming. Do not blame the workers in the heavy equipment. The plow and salter guys work their asses off storm after storm to the point of exhaustion. Blame the lack of coordination. Blame the lack of leadership. Blame Phil Murphy.

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