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Jeffersonian Liberal
- May 22, 2010
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(WHD)- President Obama has gone golfing a total of 59 times in just under two years as president, a blistering pace that puts him on the golf course an average of about once every two weeks, including winters.
According to statistics compiled by CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, who keeps close tabs on the presidents activities, Obama played 30 rounds in 2010, 28 rounds in 2009, and one this year. The 2011 outing is among the five times he went out on the course during his just concluded 12 day vacation to Hawaii.
While golf is played by millions of Americans and extends its reach well into the middle class, it is also perceived as a game of the idle rich and is generally unavailable to the poor, putting Obamas frequent outings at odds with his image as a man of hope for the dispossessed.
The White House carefully downplays Obamas golfing, rarely talking about it and releasing few pictures of the president swinging away. A search of the White House uploads on the Flickr photo-sharing website finds only three shots of the president on the golf course, compared to nearly two dozen of him on the basketball court.
Obamas excursions usually involve a full 18 holes of play and take around five hours out of his day, including time motorcading to and from the course.
But others say the president could find another way to relax, and that golfing sends the wrong message to the poor and to the troops during a time of economic struggle and war.
George W. Bush gave up golfing in 2003, explaining his rationale five years later in an interview with POLITICO.
I dont want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf, he said. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.
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