Long Putter Shows Up In Obama's Vineyard Four-Ball!

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The Note reports that some of the White House press corps on Martha's Vineyard felt the earthquake, but as usual the lede was buried. Check out that putter being used by the Presidential playing partner. I can't tell if he's bracing, but the Obama look of disdain says all I need to know about his stance on long putters. Thanks to reader Rob for this.
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"In the annals of presidential golf history, the Obama-Boehner round...is an oddity."

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An unbylined AP story on how the White House sees some of the particulars playing out for Saturday's Obama-Boehner buddies trip golf outting.

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney says he anticipates that Obama and Boehner will find time to discuss important issues such as budget negotiations.

But the outing is mostly about giving them a chance to socialize. Carney says that gives it “great value beyond the game.”

Carney isn’t saying whether the White House will disclose what the golfers shot on their round. The Ohio lawmaker is known to be a much better golfer than Obama.
Carney says reporters and photographers will get a chance to see something of the action. The White House hasn’t said what course they’ll play.

In last Sunday's New York Times Opinion section, Don Van Natta filed this worthwhile analysis of the round, where it fits historically and why it's a risk for the President.

A president has never played a round of golf with the leader of the opposing party who was also considered a near-lock to win the match (the closest thing was a round L. B. J. played with Dwight D. Eisenhower in February 1968 at Seven Lakes Country Club in Palm Springs, Calif.; Ike won in a breeze). So, perhaps Mr. Obama deserves to be spotted a few free strokes for sporting courage.

More important, the timing of the “golf summit” is curious (and not just because it coincides with the United States Open at nearby Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.). Two wars (three, if you count health care; four, if you count Libya), a stubborn economic downturn and partisan rancor combine to make the president’s decision to play with Mr. Boehner a surprise and one that appears to offer more downside than upside to the White House.

"A president's critics always go for the golf joke because it irritates people at a gut level."

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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.