Golf and the President

Most presidents play golf. Dwight Eisenhower was famous for
playing a lot of golf. He seemed to play golf more than he worked as president.
But Ike knew what he was doing, and when it came to making decisions about war
and peace, he didn’t spend a lot of time dickering around.

President Ford was a famous hacker. When he played golf
around a lot of people, it was the gallery that was in danger, not the
president.

George Bush the First famously played golf very, very fast.
As president, you can clear out all the foursomes in front of you, which is
what Papa Bush did. And then he would get 18 holes in in about an hour and a
half.

Bill Clinton famously cheated at golf. I played behind him
once, and saw him throw three balls down in the fairway until he got the shot
he wanted. His group was playing so slow that a group playing behind us hit
into our group, and hit one of our foursome in the head. Luckily, the
president’s doctors were there, and they were able to bandage him up pretty
quickly.

When Clinton once said he broke 80, Tom DeLay called him a
liar, and challenged him to a match. I don’t think it ever happened, though.

George Bush the Second seemed like a pretty good golfer. He
had a good swing and looked like he could shoot in the high 70s to low 80s.
Bush got a lot of grief for playing golf during the Iraq war, and he stopped
playing for a while, out of deference for the troops (and for the bad press he
was getting). That probably partially explains why Obama has played a lot more
than Bush did thus far in his term.

Obama has played a lot of golf, though. He has played more
rounds of golf than he had meetings with congressional Republicans. He had
played more golf than he has had meeting with Democrats working out the details
of his healthcare strategy. He has played a lot more golf than had meetings
with Gen. McChrystal about our strategy in Afghanistan.

I would feel a lot better about the president’s golf game
had he announced his decision on Afghanistan. The excuses coming from the White
House about the indecision of the president are amazing. Rahm said that he
doesn’t want to make an announcement until they get a legitimate,
corruption-free government in Afghanistan. I love hearing Chicago politicians
complain about the corruption in another country. Hell, Chicago politicians invented
political corruption!

The president yesterday said he didn’t want to make a quick
decision to put our young folks in harm’s way, not seeming to realize that we
already have young people in harm’s way in Afghanistan, and they need
reinforcements, now.

I certainly hope the president is not delaying his
announcement because of politics. Some have speculated that the White House
didn’t want to announce a decision because of concerns over its impact on the
New Jersey and Virginia races. Others have speculated that if they piss off the
liberals on Afghanistan, it may hurt them with passage of healthcare.

None of those reasons is sufficient. The former vice
president may not have been the best messenger, but his message was right. Mr.
Obama needs to stop dithering.

There is nothing worse than playing golf behind a slow
golfer. You know, the kind who takes eight practice swings and then hits a
worm-burner, the kind that gets to the green in three over par, and then lines
up the putt from every angle, the kind that spends 25 minutes looking for a
ball in the woods, only to throw a ball down, and hit another one in the woods.

That’s real dithering. And that is what the president is
doing with Afghanistan now.

Slow play in golf is annoying. Slow play in war is deadly.

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