After reading Maureen Dowd's incredibly moronic column complaining about Obama playing golf whenever anything else is happening in the world, and playing it with famous and wealthy people, and perhaps even enjoying himself while playing it, I've been wondering what exactly is it about Obama playing golf that sets off the right wing and their panderers like Dowd?
Roy Edroso documents how persistent this theme is on the right as a criticism of the president, going all the way back to April 2009. He concludes that they keep hitting this theme because in a very practical way it works for them:
Of all the rightblogger routines, this one does seem best suited to a regular-media pick-up -- because it's about appearances rather than reality. No one who thought about it for more than ten seconds could conclude that Obama can speed the defeat of ISIS by frowning and staying indoors.
That's certainly part of it. It's certainly the main thread that makes any sort of sense of Dowd's drivel:
He shouldn't be golfing because it looks bad.
But the other main attack lines the right uses re his playing golf are that the president has "checked out," that he's slacking on his responsibilities, that he's "obsessed with golf," "goofing off," "as irresponsible as a teenager," acting like a fool, that he's weak and clueless in the face of Terrible Threats to the Nation, and more worried about his golf swing than he is about protecting you and me.
I don't know about you, but to me that just doesn't seem like a normal response to the idea of a president playing golf when he's on vacation.
Many presidents have found golf a valuable chance for rest and relaxation from the heavy responsibilities of office. FDR played golf. Eisenhower played golf. JFK played golf. Nixon played golf. Ford played golf. Reagan played golf. Bush I played golf. Clinton played golf. Bush II played golf.
They were playing a sophisticated game, socializing, and getting some downtime. No one ever used golf as a club to call them lazy, goofing-off child-men.
I wonder just what exactly is it that's so different about this president playing golf?