Obama Hits Milestone: 200th Round Of Golf

by William Teach | October 13, 2014 6:56 am

Priorities

(UK Daily Mail[1]) While officials in Dallas scrambled to calm public hysteria over news of the first Ebola transmission on U.S. soil, Barack Obama hit the links for his 200th golf game as president.

The president embarked on his leisurely outing to Virginia after taking a a few moments to speak with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell for an update on the worsening situation in Dallas.

Accompanying the president to Ft. Belvoir were his crew of loyal White House aides including Joe Paulsen, Mike Brush and Marvin Nicholson according to press pool reports.

Let’s be clear: it’s not so much that Obama is taking some time for leisure. It’s partly about Democrats going after George Bush for playing golf early in his presidency, something he had to give up for optics. If it was OK to bash Bush, why is it not OK to bash Obama? There’s also the problem that Obama never really seems to work hard on the business of the USA to need these big breaks, nor does he really seem to care that much. It also goes to when he does it. He just got back from a multi-day fundraising trip, his favorite thing to do, and

White House Dossier[2] reported the golf game count Sunday afternoon.

This isn’t the first time Obama has been spotted on the greens instead of in the White House during a time of national distress.

In August, after the beheading of American journalist James Foley, Obama issued a brief statement and then went for another round with his aides.

You have Ebola growing, and, more importantly, the fear of Ebola growing, here in the United States. And many Obama supporters[3] are incredibly, and possibly correctly, fearful. You have ISIS. And so much more.

Just before running off to golf, and while the battle against ISIS continued to rage in the Middle East, Obama was first briefed America’s second Ebola diagnosis by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security Lisa Monaco. He later spoke to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell on the government’s response. According to pool reports, the president:

• Instructed the the CDC to complete their investigation into what went wrong at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital as quickly as possible.
• Ensured that CDCs sent out to Dallas work closely with state and local authorities.
• Instructed those in the trenches to share information learned quickly and broadly.
• Told federal authorities to take immediate additionoal steps should another Ebola patient be encountered

A final point is that Obama running off for some leisure wouldn’t be bad if there was any confidence that Obama was on top of the problem, was getting ahead of the problem. Instead, he mostly seems to be disengaged and going through the motions.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[4]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[5].