FORE! Score? And 7 Trillion Rounds Ago: The Golf Address

[Shady]

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times hits Barry pretty hard over his golfing, especially during recent events, such as the beheading of journalist James Foley. I think it's a bit harsh myself, but it's very entertaining.

FORE! Score? And seven trillion rounds ago, our forecaddies brought forth on this continent a new playground, conceived by Robert Trent Jones, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal when it comes to spending as much time on the links as possible — even when it seems totally inappropriate, like moments after making a solemn statement condemning the grisly murder of a 40-year-old American journalist beheaded by ISIL.

I know reporters didn’t get a chance to ask questions, but I had to bounce. I had a 1 p.m. tee time at Vineyard Golf Club with Alonzo Mourning and a part-owner of the Boston Celtics.

...

Now we are engaged in a great civil divide in Ferguson, which does not even have a golf course, and that’s why I had a “logistical” issue with going there. We are testing whether that community, or any community so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure when the nation’s leader wants nothing more than to sink a birdie putt.

...

I know it doesn’t look good to have pictures of me grinning in a golf cart juxtaposed with ones of James Foley’s parents crying, and a distraught David Cameron rushing back from his vacation after only one day, and the Pentagon news conference with Chuck Hagel and General Dempsey on the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Syria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-the-golf-address.html?_r=0

I don't really have a problem with him golfing, but you would think he might have a little better understanding of the bad optics of it. But apparently not, or he just doesn't care anymore.

DISCLAIMER: Bush was criticized for the same type of thing, we already know.

Edited August 24, 2014 by Shady

[AngusThermopyle]

Apparently the Brits are close to, or have already identified the POS who performed this grisly act and have deployed SAS members to hunt him down. I guess he can bend over and kiss the repository of his mental abilities good bye.

Yeah, the optics are bad but come on man. The guy has to get his Golf on.

[August1991]

Apparently the Brits are close to, or have already identified the POS who performed this grisly act and have deployed SAS members to hunt him down.

His youtube rap video seems too close to an Ali G parody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT1YDIV4lGE

[Wilber]

Eisenhower was the biggest presidential golf addict. It's a great way to get your mind off a high stress work place and concentrate on the futility of your game.I can see people being critical of a lot of things he has done but this isn't one of them.

[August1991]

Eisenhower was the biggest presidential golf addict.

There are no photos of Eisenhower playing golf in England in May/June 1944. Much less of Churchill, or Stalin.

Obama, like Oprah and the modern American Left in general, seem to understand "image". But do they understand "reality"?

I suspect that the modern American Left doesn't quite understand how image is connected to reality. Truman did. From Potsdam while sitting with Stalin, he ordered the US Air Force to drop not one but two atomic bombs. Truman understood perfectly how reality was connected to image.

Edited August 29, 2014 by August1991

[Wilber]

Eisenhower wasn't President in 44 and I don't know that Churchill ever played golf. Stalin's recreation was having people shot or sent to gulags.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Wilber

[August1991]

Eisenhower wasn't President in 44 and I don't know that Churchill ever played golf. Stalin's recreation was having people shot or sent to gulags.

Wilber, your posts usually make sense. In this case, you entirely - let me repeat that - you COMPLETELY miss my point.

Were you being ironic? On such an issue, irony IMHO is inappropriate.

-----

To return to my point, once upon a time, there was a US president who sat beside a Russian leader, talked/negotiated, looked him in the face, saw into his soul. And then, the Russian leader discovered later that while these meetings occurred, the same US President had ordered that two new bombs be dropped.

IOW, Stalin only realized later that smiling Truman knew the whole time what would happen.

Edited August 30, 2014 by August1991

[Wilber]

Wilber, your posts usually make sense. In this case, you entirely - let me repeat that - you COMPLETELY miss my point.Were you being ironic? On such an issue, irony IMHO is inappropriate.

In 44 I also think most British golf courses were being used to grow veggies so we will never know if Eisenhower would have found time for a round or two. I kind of think he might.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Wilber

[Wilber]

Dwight Eisenhower elected to World Golf Hall of Fame

http://golf.about.com/od/historyofgolf/a/ikegolf.htm

And Ike's presidency wasn't a time of tranquility in America or the world: The Civil Rights movement and Southern desegregation battles were under way; Castro came to power in Cuba; the French pulled out of Indochina in defeat and America began stepping up its own involvement in Vietnam; the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was getting very chilly indeed.

And yet Eisenhower managed to spend more than 1,000 days of his presidency (according to Golf Digest's count) playing golf or involved in some other golf-related activity.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Wilber

[August1991]

In 44 I also think most British golf courses were being used to grow veggies so we will never know if Eisenhower would have found time for a round or two. I kind of think he might.

Clueless.

====

Wilber: Truman and Stalin met (face-to-face) in Potsdam, Germany in July 1945. (Not 44).

During this meeting, while Truman met and talked and negotiated with Stalin, Truman also ordered (secretly) the atomic bomb drops on Japan of August 1945.

Imagine Stalin's reaction when he learned of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! More, imagine what he thought of Truman.

====

For the progressive-modern-PC-types, Truman was a smart good man living in a world where fanatics were killing millions of innocent people.

Edited September 5, 2014 by August1991

[overthere]

I don't really have a problem with him golfing, but you would think he might have a little better understanding of the bad optics of it. But apparently not, or he just doesn't care anymore.

In an interview recently he said he doesn't really give a shit about golf but.... he really misses being outside, he just does not spend much time outside as President becuase he has an intense schedule, and its dangerous outside. Playing golf lets him walk outside for a few hours, the only time in his life that he can.

[Wilber]

Clueless.

====

Wilber: Truman and Stalin met (face-to-face) in Potsdam, Germany in July 1945. (Not 44).

During this meeting, while Truman met and talked and negotiated with Stalin, Truman also ordered (secretly) the atomic bomb drops on Japan of August 1945.

Imagine Stalin's reaction when he learned of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! More, imagine what he thought of Truman.

====

For the progressive-modern-PC-types, Truman was a smart good man living in a world where fanatics were killing millions of innocent people.

You were the one going on about May/June 44. What does any of that have to do with golf?

Much was made of the story about Drake insisting on finishing his game of bowls as the Armada came into sight. Whether true or not, it was held up as an example of coolness under stress. Now he would get dumped on by every partisan hack with access to a computer or smart phone.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Wilber

[Argus]

I call on all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers!

Now watch this drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCm9788Tb5g