Swing Away, Mr. President
Golf all you want, sir.
The Wall Street Journal Online
One of the more puzzling conservative and, increasingly, mainstream media critiques of President Obama is that he plays too hard, or too much, or something.
The same cable TV and talk-radio hosts who don't seem to work on Fridays in the summer object that Mr. Obama has played golf 44 times as President, more often even than that notorious weekend warrior, George W. Bush. The latest alleged outrage is that the President indulged his inner teenager too heartily on his birthday weekend when Michelle was in Majorca, hooping it up with NBA stars and perhaps even sneaking in a cigar or two in between mulligans on the links.
We can see why media snarks with nothing else to say would stoop to this line, but what's up with the right? The objection always sounded petty and partisan when liberals threw it at Mr. Bush, and it sounds no more persuasive when leveled against a liberal President. One of the more useful conservative insights is that life shouldn't be ruled by politics, and that is no less true merely because we live in a 24/7 cable TV news cycle.
We wish Mr. Obama played more golf. Seven days a week, in fact. Imagine how much better off America would be—and how much more popular the President would be—had he taken the rising public protests against ObamaCare last summer as an opening to drop the subject and work on his handicap?
The more Mr. Obama and his White House team practice their putting strokes, the less time they'd have to pass more stimulus, overregulate more industries, or raise more taxes. The economy would recover more rapidly with less political handling.
So by all means, swing away, Mr. President. Work on that jump shot, polish your short game, practice your fly cast mending. Then watch GDP and your approval ratings rise. |
