Baller-in-Chief

I KNOW there are other important issues out there, but the question of President Obama’s golfing has arisen again, and I must address it.

On Saturday night, Elizabeth Williamson, a journalist from the Wall Street Journal, borrowed my copy of “First off the Tee“, a history of presidential golfing habits. Three days later, she produces a front-page story about how President Obama has forsaken basketball for golf.

It’s well-reported and elegantly written but alarmingly biased against the nobler of the two sports. She quotes a basketball enthusiast who thinks Mr Obama’s hacking is a sign of inauthenticity:

The fact that he isn’t playing [basketball]…is a metaphor for those people who think he’s gotten soft, backed off of his promises, sold out,” says Claude Johnson, [the] owner of Black Fives Inc., a basketball merchandising firm in Greenwich, Conn. “When President Obama goes back to basketball, that will be a sign that we haven’t lost the original guy.”

Amazingly, President Obama seems to share this view that golf is something to be ashamed of:

[W]here Mr. Obama’s basketball game is showy and often televised, his golf is furtive and off-the-record. He plays with junior aides and discreet longtime friends. There’s no press allowed onto the course with him, no cameras — and few witnesses. A foursome of loyal staffers often plays out ahead of him, clearing the way and trying to ensure no one spies.

As for his score:

[That] is a matter of “national security,” deflects David Axelrod, political adviser to the First Duffer.

All this subterfuge is quite un-necessary. Basketball may have more street cred, but golf will make Mr Obama a better president. Basketball requires instant reactions in the heat of the moment. Golf requires patience and strategy, calmly executed. Which qualities would you rather see in your commander in chief? Golf also forces the president to take at least four hours off work, which is surely good for his sanity.