It was a pretty big weekend for golf, and we’re not talking about the US Open. In the first high profile event to make the sport interesting since Tiger’s wife took a seven iron to the windows of his SUV, the President and the Speaker of the House hit the links for a “golf summit.” So, did they solve any of the huge problems facing the nation? Who cares? We need to know who was kicking butt and taking names!
President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner may be at odds over taxes, the debt ceiling and the conflict in Libya, but for today at least, they put aside their differences for a round of golf.
Obama and Boehner took on Vice President Biden and Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich in a game at Joint Base Andrews’ golf course in Maryland.
The game gave the president and the Republican leader four hours to socialize — with or without discussion of the last week’s tense negotiations.
Right off the bat we should give credit where credit is due in the way both Obama and Boehner managed to avoid the obvious political landmine waiting for them after this photo op. Everyone would have been waiting to find out who won and to immediately begin drawing hilarious parallels to the final score. They dodged that bullet by having the two men team up on the same side and play against the twosome of Biden and Kasich.
That was a pretty generous move on Boehner’s part, given that the speaker is ranked 43rd “among 150 prominent Washington golfers.” While Obama seems to at least be better on the links than he is at the bowling ally, he comes in at 108th. (Strangely, most of the coverage omits the fact that Biden is listed at 24th and could apparently take both of them.)
So in the end, Obama and Boehner both got to “win” by beating their opponents on the 18th hole and collecting $2.00 each in winnings. (Wait a minute… isn’t gambling illegal?) Neither of them beaned anyone in the skull with an errant drive and the beers they shared after the round was over didn’t produce any controversial gaffes. So why did the Speaker even bother to go?
When asked if he thought they would come to an agreement any time soon, he said, “Well, no — if the president invites me to play golf, it’s the president. You don’t say no to the president.”
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