Aides to Republican and Democratic presidents have long argued that the commander in chief is on duty no matter where he is, and that even on vacation, he is receiving briefings, making phone calls and issuing orders. Obama’s defenders, is not what the president does to blow off steam, but what he does to blow up ISIS. Bush later concluded that such scenes sent a bad message, and in the fall of 2003, with the Iraq war raging, he gave up golf for the remainder of his presidency. Bush delivered a tough-worded statement denouncing a suicide bombing in Israel and then, barely missing a beat, told reporters, “Now, watch this drive.” Mr. On the course one day in 2002, President George W. ![]() Obama is not the first president to get in trouble with a golf club in hand. Manley added, “was just so shocking that the idea that he was going to immediately run to the golf course was just a little too much for folks it was tone-deaf.” “But in this particular instance, I think a lot of Democrats flinched a little bit.” “As a general rule, I think that he’s right that you can’t be held hostage to the news cycle - the man deserves a bit of downtime,” said Jim Manley, a longtime Democratic strategist. Foley’s distraught mother and father under the headline, “Prez tees off as Foley’s parents grieve.” Obama, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that “golfing today is in bad taste.” The Daily News published a front-page photograph of a grinning president in a golf cart next to a picture of Mr. Ezra Klein, editor in chief of the online news site Vox, who is normally sympathetic to Mr. Privately, many Democrats shook their heads at what they considered a judgment error. ![]() Parental Leave: The Pentagon announced a new policy that would double the amount of leave that is available to military service members.īut the criticism went beyond the usual political opponents.Korean War Wall of Remembrance: Many names of American service members who died in the conflict are misspelled or missing from the new memorial wall in Washington, relatives and researchers say.Programs: After The Times reported that some high schools were automatically placing freshmen into the military-sponsored programs at public high schools, congressional leaders are expanding their scrutiny of the military’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. Lobbying Saves Flawed Ships : The Navy pushed to retire nine of its newest warships, after years of crippling problems and a changing mission.He long ago stopped worrying about what critics say, according to aides, and after the outcry over Wednesday’s game, he defied the critics by golfing again on Thursday, his eighth outing in 11 days on the island. Obama hoped to show America’s enemies that they cannot hijack his schedule, he also showed many of his friends in America that he disdains the politics of appearance. Yet the juxtaposition of his indignant denunciation of terrorists and his outing on the greens this week underscored the unintended consequences of such a remove. And few presidents have been known more for cool, emotional detachment than Mr. To make coldhearted decisions in the best interest of the country and manage the burdens of perhaps the most stressful job on the planet, current and former White House officials said, a president must guard against becoming consumed by the emotions of the situations they confront. They deal in death one moment and seek mental and physical relief the next. Presidents learn to wall off their feelings and compartmentalize their lives. ![]() He spent the rest of the afternoon on the links even as a firestorm of criticism erupted over what many saw as a callous indifference to the slaughter he had just condemned. Obama headed to his favorite golf course on Martha’s Vineyard, where he is on vacation, seemingly able to put the savagery out of his mind. Unusually emotional, President Obama declared himself “heartbroken” by the brutal murder of an American journalist, James Foley, and vowed to “be relentless” against Islamic radicals threatening to kill another American.īut as soon as the cameras went off, Mr. WASHINGTON - He had just hung up the telephone with the devastated parents before heading in front of the cameras.
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