When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Obama's gotten a lot of scrutiny for his golf even though Boehner plays his fair share, so this unbylined AP story is worth nothing for a few reasons, none moreso though than for this item about his putting. Plug in your metaphors here.
Just the people who stuff their pockets! Want more proof that lobbyists rule the world? Look at them clog up Golf Digest's list of best political world golfers.
Boehner lands at T-43 while Obama is listed as a 17, landing him at No. 108.
Slate's John Dickerson defends Barack Obama's love for golf in light of Newt Gingrich's recent criticism. Yes, someone is defending golf!
Obama should resist—and, regardless of party, we should all want him to. The presidency is a prison. Your every move is watched and tended by the Secret Service, your opponents, and the media. Even when you're "having fun," you do so in quotation marks. At parties or a baseball game, you're watched to see if you're having a good time. If you play basketball, your on-court demeanor is analyzed for clues to your leadership style. You don't drive. You can't keep a diary (they can be subpoenaed). You can't smoke (the kids are watching). You can't take a stroll through your old neighborhood. All of this distorts the mind.
The golf course is one of the few places a president can escape the pressures and physical limitations of the office. George W. Bush was smart enough to have a ranch that allowed him to get out from under the scrutiny of the press. He was inside a perimeter, so the Secret Service could back off a little. You don't have to like golf to recognize that being able to walk in relative freedom and hang out with friends is an obvious pleasure and escape. The more tightly someone is confined, the more necessary it is to escape. One of the great problems for any president is a loss of perspective. A distraction, even for a moment, from the constant and attention-shredding duties of the day is one way to gain perspective.
Ron Sirak wants to see them make deals over a round of golf. Somehow I don't see that ending well.
Boehner is well known for using the golf course to conduct business. Federal Election Commission filings obtained by the Reuters news agency showed that Boehner's political action committee spent $82,998 on golf outings in 2009, including events at Robert Trent Jones GC in Virginia, Muirfield Village near Columbus, Ohio and the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla. "If you're going to ask people to give you money, why not let them enjoy themselves," Boehner told Golf Digest in 2005. Boehner said he doesn't discriminate against lobbyists who don't play golf, but added, "If someone I've gotten to know on the golf course comes into my office with a good argument, I tend to want to listen."
**Russell Berman of The Hill makes it sound like the chances are slim.
Boehner has said their Oval Office chit-chat is mostly focused on golf, a sport that the Ohio Republican is better at than the president.
“First thing that happens is, you know, I come in and he’ll say, ‘Boehner, you’re almost as dark as me,’ ” Boehner told Fox News host Sean Hannity last month. “You know, I listen. We talk about golf. We’ll talk about our skin color.”
“There’s no animosity, but there’s not much of a personal relationship or a working relationship,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said on Wednesday.
Captured by reader Jay in a U.S. airport (click on it to enlarge):
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
