Wednesday
Aug292012
McConnell On Obama: "He's been working to earn a spot on the PGA tour"
Daniel Strauss on the latest criticism of President Barack Obama's affinity for golf, this time from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"For four years, Barack Obama has been running from the nation's problems. He hasn't been working to earn reelection. He's been working to earn a spot on the PGA tour," McConnell said.
The link also takes you to the video clip of the comment, and a hilarious cutaway shot to the GOP convention crowd milling, moving and not paying much attention to the man.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 09:48 PM
Reader Comments (52)
As for taxes, with the US debt, how can one not raise taxes, or at least, roll back some of Dubya's uncalled for cuts.
Obama is an ego driven president who started his biography at the age of 30, well before he accomplished anything, not that he has really accomplished anything of significance. He has bigger plans for America, like bankrupting us and creating a socialist Europe. Unfortunately, liberals educate themselves on news and politics by watching E news, comedy central, and Letterman. Hard to find a non liberal news program any more. i can think of one.
Moreover, when Clinton left the Whitehouse there was a budget surplus, when Obama arrived the countries finances were an absolute disaster. People who can't see past their ideological biases and listen to news that only agrees with those biases, will never see the truth.
If you actually believe what you wrote then you're more ignorant than your commentary. The overwhelming majority of the mainstream media is biased toward the left. Obama has done NOTHING to fix the financial disaster he inherited. In fact, his policies have made what he inherited look trivial.
Bush playing golf while the troops are in harm's way something I do not resent in any way. But just in case you missed it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3p9y_OEAdc
We put these Presidents through a lot as evidenced by the color of their hair when the leave office and we as golfers should be thrilled that when they do have leisure time, they play our sport! I get people like McConnell taking jabs at Obama because he's a politician trying to win an image game, but what I can't fathom are the everyday golfers who resent a president who plays golf on his day off and clearly loves it. We are so lucky to have had the last four presidents all be golf fanatics and in their own ways, ambassadors for the sport we love.
What would you have said about Ike's golf?
But if you would stop listening to the Fox Fantasy Hour (upon hour upon hour) you might have a slightly more realistic idea of the Bush economic legacy. Regardless whether you think the war in Iraq was justified (azziff) or not, you can't deny what it cost -- and I am strictly thinking in material terms here, not the appalling (and unnecessary) human cost. Presidents of whatever stripe will be paying that one off for a long time.
The stunning economic collapse in the US in 2008, which less biased viewers would have foreseen, came on the Bush watch and ricocheted around the world wherever banks were under-regulated and a whole lot of other financial miscreance was permitted. Bailing out was the only way to keep the US from the most horrendous Depression since the 30s. Again, whoever inherited that was in for a long haul.
I don't think Obama has been much of a President, despite having many qualities desirable in the holder of that office. I am not confident that he will survive the election, but I hope he does. Look at the blithering, hypocritical alternative.
You are absolutely correct, however the republicans have built their whole campaign and policy around criticizing Obama for playing golf and hoping that wins them the election.
@ Dave. What you meant to say was "the overwhelming majority of the mainstream media are NOT Bible pounding, right-wing, extremist wingnuts who believe the rapture is just around the corner, and that constant war is a necessity, therefore they are biased towards the left. What you typed is just an old cliched superstition that has been bandied about as an excuse for creating propaganda outlets to battle against the left dominated media bogey man.
So tell, what is one of these policies that makes "have made what he inherited look trivial. "
I'm not sure how you make 2 wars and trillions of dollars wasted look trivial, but I'm very interested in hearing about it.
You simply can't say with a straight face that a liberal media bias doesn't exist.
Oh, and since when is Fox News -- overwhelmingly the number one rated cable news network -- NOT a member of the mainstream media? And since Rush Limbaugh is far and away the most population radio host on the air, you don't count HIM as a member of the mainstream media? And since the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal is the country's most important mouthpiece for Big Business and conservative advocacy, can you tell me with a straight face that it's not a member of "The Mainstream Media?"
As for Taxes and Transcripts. Name a candidate for President that actually released his college grades. (Don't say Bush; he was outed by a classmate.) I guess being editor of the Harvard Law Review means nothing these days. But that's beside the point: transcripts don't matter -- especially once you're in office -- but taxes DO. After all, if a candidate is cleverly using accounts in the Bahamas, the Cayman and a secret Swiss stash, wouldn't that shed some light on both his accountability and his "faith in America?" Please note, I'm not saying Willard has done anything illegal.... just un-American.
Oh, and if his finances are all "above board," just WHAT THE HELL has he got to hide?
And finally: What most voters don't know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz253iQAjMX
This article was published on May 14th, 2008 -- www (dot) washingtonpost (dot) com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/13/AR2008051302783.html
A few key passages:
President Bush said yesterday that he gave up golfing in 2003 "in solidarity" with the families of soldiers who were dying in Iraq, concluding that it was "just not worth it anymore" to play the sport in a time of war.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," Bush said in a White House interview with the Politico. "I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Bush said he decided to stop playing golf on Aug. 19, 2003, when a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others.
He said he received word of the attack while playing golf during a stay at the family ranch near Crawford, Tex. Press reports at the time indicate he took the call from Condoleezza Rice, then his national security adviser.
"They pulled me off the golf course, and I said it's just not worth it anymore to do," Bush said in yesterday's interview.
BTW - Good on any leader (liberal, conservative, right, left, whatever) for engaging in a sport like golf to stay healthy.
Here's an objective fact for you. Eisenhower played about 800 rounds of golf during his presidency according to Wikipedia.
Both sides want to blame the president as if he has ultimate power, when things are not the way they like.
No one man holds that much power in our government, our political system was built to prevent that type of scenario.
Many people claimed and still do that Obama will have us turned into a socialist state in his next term.
How little faith or lack of understanding in our political system must one have to believe that?
How would it be possible to do such a thing by one man in 4 years?
Politicians can't fix our more mundane issues in 4 years let alone figure out how to completely change our political system.
Wake up people!
We should hope Congress gets real and starts doing the right thing for middle class America NOW.
I smiled when someone said that O was trying to bankrupt the USA--- shit, that already happened before he was elected.
Once that critical legislation was overturned the water gates opened and the wolves and vulture capitalists moved in, setting the stage for Dubya and Oba-Mao's group of advisers/puppet masters/formerGov't Sachs execs/sycophants to freely destroy the economy while padding their pockets.
And lets not forget the effect the S&L scandals of the 80's had on the economy...all under Reagan and Bush Snr's turn at the wheel.
"Ladies and Gentlemen...we're screwed!"
--David Letterman
Getting back to the golf thing ... when the IRA started to bomb mainland Britain (way back when), one of the surgeons drafted in to help clean up the mess was a keen golfer. After operating through the night, he didn't go straight home to bed but to his golf club where he played a round of golf. Surgeons may perform heroic tasks but, at the end of the day, they are not immune from the sights and effects of what they sometimes have to deal with. Playing golf was his way to begin his healing process. So you see I, for one, am very grateful that one of the most powerful individuals in the world has found a way to separate himself briefly from those pressures.