Country Club Prez, Nine Weekends in a Row: Obama’s Golfing Mania Includes Dashing Off to Links after Laying Arlington Wreath at Tomb of Unknowns on Memorial Day (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on June 1, 2011
Country Club President: For 9th weekend in a row, right after Memorial Day ceremony for our fallen heroes, Pres. Obama went golfing at Fort Belvoir golf course
Never, ever let a national holiday honoring our fallen heroes who defend our nation from our deadly enemies interfere with GOLF.
After laying a wreath and making a brief speech at the historical, solemn ceremony on Memorial Day honoring the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (aka Tomb of the Unknowns) at Arlington National Cemetery, Pres. Barack H. Obama dashed off to the golf course.
Unbelievable.
Our Commander in Chief — on one of the very most important, most emotional days of the year in this nation to honor the memories of thousands of members of our military who gave their lives, made the ultimate sacrifice, for America — PLAYS GOLF.
How does anyone with a shred of sincere emotional investment do something like this? How can you effortlessly change into a polo shirt and golf slacks to laugh it up and smack around a little white ball after presiding at Arlington, honoring our fallen service members and talking with their families, their mothers and fathers about their courageous, dead children? At least one pro-Obama source makes excuses for him, calling any criticism of POTUS “petty nonsense.”
Be honest — who is really all that stunned at this latest audacity, is surprised that he didn’t consider it important to reschedule his precious golfing until the following day? The fact that he’s the President of the United States of America obviously makes no difference to him on Memorial Day.
Poor judgment call, Mr. President.
From White House Dossier, Obama Goes Golfing on Memorial Day:
The business of memorializing our war dead done, President Obama headed out to the Fort Belvoir golf course today, finding his way onto the links for the ninth weekend in a row.
Obama earlier today laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and met with families of those killed in battle. But he emerged from the day’s solemnity to go golfing for the 12th time this year and the 70th time of his presidency.
The decision to golf on Memorial Day invites comparison with President George W. Bush, who gave up the game early in his presidency and said he did it out of respect for the families of those killed in Iraq.
Obama is out with the three younger aides he typically has in tow on his golf excursions, junior White House staffer Ben Finkenbinder, White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson, and Energy Department staffer David Katz.
In a sign of his determination to play no matter what, Obama is golfing even though it is currently 95 degrees at Fort Belvoir and it “feels like” it’s 98 degrees, according to The Weather Channel.
Reminder: in 2010, Pres. Obama did NOT go golfing on Memorial Day. That’s because he took a mini-vacation to Chicago and the severe rainy weather would not have permitted golfing. If the weather had been nice, however… no telling.
Conservative radio host Mark Levin, on yesterday’s radio broadcast, lets loose on our “country club” president’s priorities. He points out that Pres. Obama also went golfing soon after laying the Arlington wreath on Memorial Day in 2009.
Mark Levin – Obama Is Not of the People, He Is a Country Club President
Critical observations made by Nile Gardiner in an article at The Telegraph, from which Levin read during yesterday’s broadcast — Barack Obama’s decision to play golf on Memorial Day was disrespectful and hardly presidential:
Can you imagine David Cameron enjoying a round of golf on Remembrance Sunday? It would be inconceivable for the British Prime Minister to do so, and not just because of the usually dire weather at that time of the year. Above all, it would be viewed as an act of extremely bad taste on a day when the nation remembers and mourns her war dead. I can’t imagine the PM even considering it, and I’m sure his advisers would be horrified at the idea. And if the prime minister ever did play golf on such a sacrosanct day he would be given a massive drubbing by the British press, and it would never be repeated.
Contrast this with President Obama’s decision to play golf yesterday, Memorial Day, for the 70th time during his 28-month long presidency. For tens of millions of Americans, Memorial Day is a time for remembrance of the huge sacrifices made by servicemen and women on the battlefield. The president did pay his respects in the morning, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, but later in the day traveled to Fort Belvoir to play golf. The story has not been reported so far in a single US newspaper, but was made public by veteran White House correspondent Keith Koffler on his blog.
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Does it matter if the president chooses to play golf on Memorial Day, and for the second time in his presidency (he did so as well in 2009)? I think it does, and it displays extraordinarily bad judgment, not only by Obama himself but also by his advisers. His chief of staff for example should have firmly cautioned against it. President Obama is not just any American but Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces. The United States is currently engaged in a major war in Afghanistan with over 100,000 troops on the ground, and more than 1,500 have already laid down their lives for their country.
The least the president can do on Memorial Day is spend the whole day with veterans and servicemen’s families while acknowledging their sacrifice. As Koffler points out above, President George W. Bush stopped playing golf out of respect for the families of Iraq War dead. This demonstrated not only good judgment but humility and respect for the men and women who keep America safe. It is little wonder that, as Gallup reveals in a new poll, US military personnel and veterans give Barack Obama lower marks for his job performance than members of the general public. The president’s actions smack of poor taste, as well a lack of empathy and support for the US military, hardly the kind of leadership the White House should be projecting at a time of war.
Trust that if George W. Bush did this not just once, but on two Memorial Days, I’d be one of the first in line to loudly lambast him. As would a great many other conservative AND liberal bloggers. But if a Democrat president does it, liberals are uncharacteristically mute and examine their navels for lint.
An earlier post at WH Dossier, reporting on Obama’s golfing excursion on Saturday, May 21, a mere day before embarking on his six-day, four-nation trip to Europe — Obama Golfs for the Eighth Weekend in a Row:
President Obama is on the golf course once again, the eighth weekend in a row he has played.
Indeed, it’s an absolutely gorgeous day here in Washington. He will probably play 36 holes.
This is the 11th time this year that the president has hit the links and the 69th time of his presidency.
Next week, should POTUS go golfing — and heck, there’s no reason to assume that he won’t, since he was even golfing the day the Navy SEALs took down head terrorist Osama bin Laden — will be the 10th week in a row and the 13th time this year for Obama. It will be up to 71 times during his 28-month presidency, yet again breaking the old and setting a new POTUS duffer record.
Memory lane from the links, from 2009… iOwnTheWorld.com YouTube summary:
Are we sick of the press telling us everything Obama does is great? This time it’s golf. Uh, huh. Take a look for yourselves. The guy stinks… underwater.
When is this illusion going to be called for what it is? When it’s too late. Sure this is just golf, but it’s symptomatic of the entire presidency.
Obogie – Obama Golf Game by iOwnTheWorld.com
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[...] I learn from Vicki, Mistress of the Frugal Cafe, that it’s even worse than that: After laying a wreath and making a brief speech at the historical, solemn ceremony on Memorial Day [...]
I do not think the issue is Obama golfing. The issue is the media bias.
The media attacked Bush for golfing, but they defend Obama for golfing! They tell us the president needs to relax. Really? So when Bush was president he did not need to relax too?
How does the media explain demonizing one president, then making excuses for another president, for doing the exact same thing?
But what is new with this? Didn’t the media demonize Bush when he put the Patriot Act in place? Did they demonize Obama when he just signed the re-authorization of this very same Patriot Act?
And could you just imagine if Bush had come out with the same statement on bombing a country, that Obama just made regarding Libya and the war powers act!
Anything Bush did the media attacked, but anything Obama does the media justifies, excuses or just plain swoons over!
Haven’t we all heard the words of wisdom of Michele Obama on how WE all have to eat healthy foods, how obesity is a major issue in America. She and the liberals now want to control what WE all eat.
But have you seen the Obama’s go on one vacation were they have not been in the newspapers and cable channels eating ice cream? Do as we say not as we do!
Journalism is dead; the main stream media is now just the propaganda arm of the Obama whitehouse.
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