| Media Cheer Obama's Golf Outings; Criticized Republicans' Trips to Course | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 23 2009, 05:09 PM (231 Views) | |
| Ernie | Jun 23 2009, 05:09 PM Post #1 |
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Brothers Klecko and CR mentioned in another thread that Obama is always accessible and ready for action even if he is golfing. I agree, but unfortunately the media has a different outlook on Presidential golf based upon one's political affiliation. I hope you enjoy this article, Brothers. Media Cheer Obama's Golf Outings; Criticized Republicans' Trips to Course Tuesday, June 23, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer ![]() President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden (AP Photo)(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama has gone to the golf course at least 11 times since he took the oath of office a little more than six months ago--three rounds were played during the late January, 12-day holiday Obama took with his family in Hawaii; one at Andrews Air Force Base; and seven at Ft. Belvoir Golf Course, including a round on Sunday, Father’s Day, with Vice President Joe Biden. These 11 rounds played by the president are documented through media reports of his golf trips. The White House press office told CNSNews.com that to confirm every round of golf played by the president since he took office would take “hours” because the only records kept are those sent to the media through e-mails that are not posted on the White House Web site because they are for media planning only. Despite ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ongoing violence in Iran, and an economy that Obama has described as the worst since the Great Depression, the president has golfed multiple times in the past several weeks--on April 26, May 16, May 25, May 31, June 7, June 9, June 14 and June 21. Obama’s golf outings have generated favorable reports from the media, in contrast to his predecessor, George W. Bush. On Aug. 5, 2002, The Washington Post wrote about President Bush golfing near his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Under the headline “Before Golf, Bush Decries Latest Deaths in Mideast,” staff writer Mike Allen described Bush as he “sprang from his golf cart at 6:15 a.m. and said he was distressed to hear about the latest suicide bombers in Israel.” “Bush, wearing khakis and a knit shirt, was holding a driver in his gloved left hand,” Allen wrote. “However incongruous the setting, the president plunged ahead,” Allen wrote. “There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started, and we must not let them,” he [Bush] said. “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers.” “His business out of the way,” Allen wrote, “Bush barely paused for breath before saying, ‘Thank you. Now watch this drive.’” A search of news reports on Nexis revealed that photographers, but not reporters have access to Obama when he is on the links. But his outings have been covered, including by The Washington Post on June 9, 2009, in an article with the headline “Just the Sport for A Leader Most Driven.” “What’s the deal? Why golf?” Post staff writer Richard Leiby wrote. “The attraction seems to be simple. It’s a great escape; the game demands such attention that nothing else matters. It’s time spent with friends, an unhurried afternoon in loose clothing (shorts seem to be Obama’s preference).” Leiby continued, “To some, Obama’s frequent outings reflect a cool self-confidence.” Leiby even quoted a sports psychologist who said Obama seemed able to play golf despite the grim reports by the media about the wars and the economy. In August 2003, Bush said he decided to stop playing golf to show his respect for the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” Bush said in an interview with Politico and Yahoo News on May 13, 2008. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.” Bush said he made the decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner of human rights. He was golfing when he got the news. “I was playing golf--I think I was in central Texas--and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It’s just not worth it anymore to do.’” Bush was criticized for giving up golf, including by presidential historian Robert Dallek who was quoted in a May 14, 2008 article in The Washington Post. Dallek said Bush’s remarks about Iraq “speak to his shallowness.” Dallek added: “That's his idea of sacrifice, to give up golf?” Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, also was criticized for golfing in a time of war. In an Aug. 3, 2006 article in USA Today entitled “No Rest for the President,” it noted that George W. Bush cut his summer vacation to 10 days because of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, and a sidebar reviewed other presidential vacations. Among other things, the sidebar said, “George H.W. Bush: In 1990, Bush was criticized for playing golf and fishing at his Kennebunkport, Maine, summer home and seeming indifferent as U.S. troops were being deployed to the Persian Gulf in anticipation of a war with Iraq.” Obama golfed on May 25 after he spoke and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day. Presidential aides told the media that Obama observed a moment of silence at 3 p.m. while on the links. Obama also played golf on June 7, the day he returned from his trip to Egypt and Germany, where he visited Holocaust concentration camps, and Normandy, France, where as many as 6,000 American troops died when Allied Forces invaded the country during World War II. “With his wife and daughters still in France, the president ducked out of the White House 90 minutes after getting home and headed out to the Andrews Air Force Base course with his clubs to enjoy a round, with skies only partly cloudy and temperatures about 80 degrees,” United Press International reported on June 7. http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49931 |
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| Klecko73isGod | Jun 23 2009, 05:13 PM Post #2 |
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Actually, I didn't mention anything about Obama and golf. I'd appreciate it if you got one fact straight just once. Its' really not that hard. All you have to do is to remove your head from your ass and read. |
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| Dean | Jun 23 2009, 05:16 PM Post #3 |
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Nah, no bias in the criminal liberal media. Is it any wonder why viewers(tv), and subscribers(newspapers) are leaving them in droves? The idiots running them aren't smart enough to figure this out. |
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| Klecko73isGod | Jun 23 2009, 05:33 PM Post #4 |
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Well to be fair, if you ACTUALLY FUCKING READ THE GOD DAMNED ARTICLE FOR A CHANGE you would clearly see it demonstrate WHY Bush got abused for the media when he was playing golf. It was because he had an extremely cocky and cavalier attitude when answering reporters questions about the war while standing next to a tee box with a driver in his hands. |
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| DoubleDown | Jun 23 2009, 05:35 PM Post #5 |
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Not to mention there was a completely different dynamic to the war in 2003 - 2005 compared to 2009. |
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| Dean | Jun 23 2009, 05:37 PM Post #6 |
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Yeah sure, that's why they hated Bush. He was cocky.
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| Bugg | Jun 23 2009, 06:40 PM Post #7 |
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I'm not a fan of Bush nor Obama. But when Obama golfs or works out, it's signals what a wonderful guy he is. When Bush mountain biked or golfed(the latter which he gave up for most of his term after the hue and cry), he was goofing off. The media will give Obama every break possible and cover for him any way they can. It's disgraceful.
Edited by Bugg, Jun 23 2009, 06:41 PM.
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| dcJet | Jun 24 2009, 02:09 PM Post #8 |
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In the beginning of his term, Bush took a lot of "working vacations" at his ranch. That gave his opponents fodder to criticise him as being a slacker. Then after 9/11 and Iraq, Bush's handlers really screwed up by letting him golf and give interviews at the same time. It sends a terrible message to be talking about dead soldiers in a war he initiated, and then saying "Now watch me hit this drive". Talking about the war while golfing connects the two events. He should have just played quietly. Obama doesn't have these problems. He is seen as a hard worker and most of the public agrees that the biggest problems he faces were inherited. Because of that, the public does not begrudge him an occasional vacation or round of golf. Also, notice how Obama does not give interviews while golfing or on a "date" with the wife. He learned from Bush. |
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| Plumberkhan | Jun 24 2009, 02:42 PM Post #9 |
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