Golfer-in-Chief Skips Hole to Avoid Cameras

posted at 10:06 am on August 22, 2011 by
[ Obama ]   

President Obama’s ten days on Martha’s Vineyard aren’t really a vacation, Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week, because “the presidency follows him” wherever he goes. If you need proof, just look at the accompanying photo. It shows the president being briefed on matters of great import. One might describe him as looking “intense.”

OK, only the most gullible sap is going to be taken in by staged images of Obama looking presidential. Perhaps mindful of that grim reality, his entourage is keeping a lower profile this summer than in previous years. Jake Tapper of ABC News wrote the day before the president’s arrival on the island:

There are fewer welcoming signs on houses. A few flags are flying at homes, and the hotel housing the press corps is covered with red, white and blue bunting. But other than that, and several Secret Service agents strolling the streets, there aren’t a lot of signs that the commander in chief is heading here for a week and a half.

And then there’s this from Saturday. The president was out playing a rare round of golf with his buddy Eric Whitaker at the Vineyard Golf Course in Edgartown. As the duo approached the eighth tee, Obama noticed three TV cameras and a photographer from the Boston Globe across the street. Rather than be photographed playing golf, the president skipped the hole.

Obama is naïve enough to think Americans are naïve enough to miss the obvious connection between his failed leadership and rampant unemployment (which has grown on his watch) and the shaky economy (which has declined on his watch). He is foolish enough to believe that if he suppresses images of him at leisure and promotes politicized ones that the electorate will never know he is fiddling while the nation burns. Silly, silly man.

In his remarks last week on the president’s impending vacation, Press Secretary Carney also told reporters, “I don’t think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the President would spend some time with his family.” I believe that’s true, but I’m not sure the White House does. If they did, why would the president feel he had to hide from the cameras when out on the links?

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Now he’s starting to hide. Phase One of “The Bunker” begins.

teacherman on August 22, 2011 at 10:48 AM

Fewer welcoming signs on the houses are not signs for a low key welcome for this president. They are either in foreclosure or the owners have had the scales removed from their eyes. He probably needed to skip the hole cuz it was too difficult and could cut his score.

Kissmygrits on August 22, 2011 at 11:17 AM

I think this is an outstanding candidate for OOTD. If the media doesn’t see me playing golf then they won’t know I am playing golf. Yeah, that’ll work.

parke on August 22, 2011 at 1:11 PM

He probably needed to skip the hole cuz it was too difficult and could cut his score.

Kissmygrits on August 22, 2011 at 11:17 AM

No need to do that.

His score is being kept by those genius economic forecasters at Al Reuters. He never cards over two strokes for any given hole (although the score may be revised upward later)

Anything over two strokes would be truly “unexpected”.

VelvetElvis on August 22, 2011 at 2:09 PM

Gotta say, am appreciating this exposure in all these vacation-n-golf related posts. Keep up the good work, Mr. Portnoy. He’d be funny if he weren’t so…arrogant, lazy, clueless, wasteful, pathetic, etc….

inviolet on August 22, 2011 at 3:18 PM

Can the voting public rent Camp David? Evidently it’s not good enough for some people – but others might enjoy it.

BHO Jonestown on August 22, 2011 at 6:39 PM

inviolet: Thanks for the kind words. Glad to be of service.

Howard Portnoy on August 22, 2011 at 8:15 PM

Do you think he wrote a zero on his scorecard for the hole?

J.E. Dyer on August 22, 2011 at 10:40 PM

And then there’s this from Saturday. The president was out playing a rare round of golf with his buddy Eric Whitaker at the Vineyard Golf Course in Edgartown. As the duo approached the eighth tee, Obama noticed three TV cameras and a photographer from the Boston Globe across the street. Rather than be photographed playing golf, the president skipped the hole.

He’s been skipping inconvenient holes all his life. I guess he just wrote “present” on the scorecard…

disa on August 23, 2011 at 10:29 PM