President Barack Obama has played a remarkable 41 rounds of golf since becoming president, easily outpacing his predecessor and possibly damaging his ability to portray himself in 2012 as a populist advocate of average folks.
With the excursions lasting on average at least five hours, the president has devoted a total of more than 200 hours to golf, not counting time spent on the White House putting green. That’s the equivalent of twenty five eight-hour work days, or five work weeks spent smacking golf balls.
The former community organizer’s 41 trips around the links – a standard of recreational activity well beyond the budgets of most Americans – compares to only 24 total outings for former President George W. Bush, according to statistics compiled by White House chronicler Mark Knoller of CBS News. Bush, whose golf outings were used to help deride him as a callow, lazy, rich boy, played his 24th and last round on Oct. 13, 2003, saying he was ending the practice out of respect for the families of Americans killed in Iraq.
Since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 rig workers and started the Gulf oil spill, Obama has teed up seven times, according to White House Dossier’s count. This includes back to back sessions April 23 and 24 while on vacation at the Grove Park Resort & Spa in Asheville, NC, just days after the crisis began.
Obama’s focus on golf borders on obsession. Startled reporters follow him out to the course in the motorcade in the broiling Washington heat and then wait in the air conditioning while he puts in 18 holes. Rarely does he play any less.
On June 19, he dragged the 67 year old Vice President Biden onto the course for a sweltering 18 holes, calling into question whether he was trying to commit murder-by-golf in order to free the 2012 VP slot up for Hillary.
From a period stretching from April 3 to May 22 of this year, the president went golfing eight of nine weekends. WOULD YOUR WIFE LET YOU DO THAT?? WOULD YOU LET YOUR HUSBAND? Michelle, what gives?
He went out only once in June when, with the Gulf of Mexico slowly becoming the new U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and accusations of presidential inattention at their height, White House image counselors appeared to think the golf needed scaling back. But he’s back with a vengeance, having made his way out on the course both weekends so far this month.
Since he’s officially on vacation this weekend in Bar Harbor Maine, there appears to be little holding him back from heading out to the greens at least once.
While on the course, Obama for the most part likes to keep it nice and light, often playing with a youngish crowd. No deep discussions of policy on the links.
One of his companions on nearly every outing is Marvin Nicholson, the affable, White House trip director. Nicholson, a former “body man” to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), is the perfect guy for getting away from it all, having worked as a golf caddy, a bartender, and in a windsurfing shop – where he met Kerry.
Also generally on hand is David Katz, a former Obama campaign photographer.
Emphatically not invited for the most part are members of Congress or senior White House aides.
The White House is of course sensitive to the awkward look of the whole thing. A search of of the word “golf” on the White House page or the photo sharing site Flickr brings back only nine official White House photo results, three of which are neither of Obama nor golf. A search for “basketball,” the everyman’s game, brings back 39 photos.
But who wants to be the White House official to tell the president to cut back on golf? Somebody with another job offer, one would presume.
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The affirmative action educated president is a useless waste of tax dollars.
Obama is an overpaid clown in way over his head. We need to replace every non-conservative member of Congress with a Constitution-following, liberty-loving conservative in 2010. Legislatively nullify the unconstitutional, economy-ruining bills Obama signed and let him lame duck the rest of his term until he is ousted in 2012. In the meantime, let him play as much golf as he wants. At least he’s not doing damage when he’s golfing. Theoretically, anyway.
Despair, thy name is OBAMA. What a monster. What did we deserve to be cursed by this socialist parasite? Oh well, must be nice to play 5 weeks of golf + take 7 vacations. Got to run, need to get back to looking for a job.
This shows again, this losers lack of executive experience. An experienced leader wouldn’t dare get out and make such a repeated public display of his recreation when his (country, in this case) is suffering with two wars, record unemployment, the oil spill disaster, and a looming financial crisis.
He doesn’t give a hoot about any of this, except for his next tee time.
He doesn’t know how to be a leader, and he is obviously too arrogant to take the advice of his “image people”….like he said before “I won….”.
Hurry 2012!
Get real. I am glad to know that he is taking time away from the most stressful job in the world to relax. What is wrong with you? Bush quit work everyday at 5 pm. 5PM …… he sure as hell didn’t get all caught up in being president. But then he had Cheney really running the deal.
Let’s give this Telepromptor in Chief a permanent vacation!!!
Obama cannot decide if he wants to be another Franklin D Roosevelt or another Tiger Woods. Fact is he won’t be either!
He tries to portray himself as an athlete. That’s a lie, like everything else. The video of him teeing off with his Blackberry flying off his belt is a riot. It’s the same with “shooting hoops” and his “girly-man” baseball pitches. (Bush 2 could throw a good pitch).
“Liberals are incorrigible and their disease incurable” Pat Buchanan
Go to youtube, and watch Obama swing a club.
Seriously, if he can’t even manage to swing a golf club properly, how do you expect him to manage this country’s economy.
With that swing, he’s never going to get better.
The Liberals were all over President Bush, complaining every time he went to his ranch or to Camp David. They are such hypocrites.
They should stop the whining and blaming and try to get some jobs back for the American People.
They have written this reform bill for the financial institutions and they left out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the REAL cause of this crisis, but the Libs never let the truth get in the way.
@Kirk Pitman, he may have quit work at 5pm each day, but you cleverly forget to mention that Bush also went to bed at 9pm every night (unless there was an event to attend)! What time do the parties end now day at the WH? And what time does the Annoited One roll out of bed on a typical day? What time does the Annoited One quit work every day? Don’t give us a single statistic and try to make someone look bad!
What Mr Koffler forgets to factor into the equation is the time after a round of golf. Obama has to take a hour or two to recoup from taking so many swings and the heat of the day. I bet Obama goes to play golf, so he can indulge into his dirty little smoking habbit.
you may be right
Let him play and perhaps he’ll not damage this Country as much as he could if if “Governed” full time.
I hate these types of stories as they deflect from greater issue that face us with this President.
Obama’s recent derogatory comments about his opponents attending ribbon-cuttings underscored the vicious, petulant, vindictive and petty true character of the man. This further display of immature conduct was notably beneath the dignity of the office that Obama occupies; and, further accentuates his lack of fitness for the presidency of the United States, our country that he has so frequently demeaned in his commentary. Greg Neubeck
Michael Moore, where are you?
Obama can do no wrong. He could run around naked on the White House lawn and the media would give him a mulligan.
If George W. Bush did half the stuff Obama has pulled in his time in office, the media would be calling for his head on a silver platter.
Obama is an empty suit, just as Geraldine Ferrarro described him. He has no clue what it takes to be President of the United States. He is a detriment to our country. November 2012 cannot come fast enough!
So what? Republicans never complained when Ford, Reagan or Bush played golf — and all did so frequently. A person is a better leader if they keep themselves fit physically and mentally. Obama has accomplished more in a year than many presidents have in entire terms.
The Commander of the Golf Balls acts like a thin skinned kid, who 53 per cent of the electorate elected because he was black. He didn’t need to be intelligent, caring, fiscally responsible or a Capitalist. He didn’t have to have executive experience or proof of where he was born. He simply needed to be black. Well, we have the first Affirmative Action President in the history of the United States. For all of you who voted for him and are being hurt like the rest of us, how do you like that Hopy, Changy feeling now?
Golfing around 1 day a week is nothing crazy. Millions of Americans do this. Golfing 18 holes is also the standard. The writer of this article needs to find a new job since writing articles about people playing golf is something he is not good at. I am not even a Obama supporter and will vote republican but this article is stupid. Hell, I golf 2 days a week! Big deal
At least while the incompetent CrackheadCommunityOrganzier is playing golf he can’t do more damage to our country.
The stool sample has played 41 rounds of golf and has had 7 vacations at our expense in a year and a half.
He’s a radical thug! He’s out to destroy “evil” America and lovin’ it. November will be too late – the damage is done and more will come and he’s proud of it. We need to establish a system that will take thugs like him out before his term is over – fire him with no benefits like in the real job market. He has done more damage to this country in his time in office while we sit by unable to do anything to counter his form of “terrorism”. Our hope is in November, but in the mean time, the “burglar” continues to rob America while we stand by and wait for the “police”.
Can that left winged loser break a hundred?
He looks like a terrible golfer, although that would be a major improvement on his ability to be president.
Maybe he could get a job that really would suit his abilities—a caddy or shoeshine guy.
His golf game looks to be about as solid as his economic policies. But at least the only damage he can do on the golf course is make divots.
and obama is a rotten golfer. thats why there are no pictures.
That is 5 weeks at 40 hours a week, add in the basketball, vacation, Gulf phot-ops, WH sing-a-longs, patheitc campaigning, Leno and Letterman appearance — Obama is enjoying himself at our expense.
Do you ever get the feeling that this WH crew, when they are not reading teleprompters, are either campaigning or vacationing? I like that as a job description, “teleprompting, campaigning and/or vacationing”, apply within.
Is being the President and Vice President of the US not a real job? Some jobs have perks, but there is that whole job part. Work. Being President or Vice President looks like a lot of perks, without the job. When I think job, I think the kind you need to actually sit behind a desk, roll up your sleeves (and not for a photo-op) and actually work. Read something. Call someone. Figure things out. Fix things. Make things run more efficiently. Please the boss or whoever is paying your salary with your hard work and ingenuity. It seems like this administration spends 85% (that is the percentage that feels right) of its time creating photo-ops, campaigning for “sinking like stones” Democrat candidates or just having fun.
Question: How does the WH handle the Gulf Oil Crisis? Answer: Meet with head BP guy for 20 minutes, eat some shrimp, make your best poignant face as you stare at the oil soaked Gulf as photogs conveniently capture your intimate moment with the sea and leave on your jet plane (“I’ll be back again”). 20 minutes with BP and 3 hours at the gulf…case closed. Back to the WH in time for whatever concert Michele has lined up. Okay, maybe it is not that bad, but that is how it appears. I really think if the President or Vice-President were sitting at a desk working on the oil spill, I would have seen a picture by now (or refreshingly not seen any pictures between 8-5pm).
Where was I. Oh, “Biden stops traffic.” Biden probably thinks it is because of his tan and age resistant good looks. How many problems do we have? Oil spill. Economy. All manner of little B.S. countries threatening us. A lotta %#@% going on right now. I know that the Vice President does not have much to do, but seriously, is going on Leno (last night) a productive use of time? Yes, if you are a vain, pompous little man needing a quick “fix” of importance or celebrity. I would like to see Joe at a desk studying all the problems on our U.S.A. plate.
Joe does Leno which results in LAX having to shut down air traffic. It has been reported that passengers were stuck from 45 minutes to four hours. Some flights had three-hour delays. People lost bags and missed connections.
What kind of monstrous conceit do these people have that they think their appearance on an entertainment show is worth the cost (we paid $$$for that little ego trip) and the inconvenience of thousands? Is there anybody working?
Look, a growing majority of voting Americans know BO is an incompetent, socialist who is WAY over his head. But, at least for the next 2.5 years (which is as long as he will be president!), look at it this way:
And you’re surprised? Democrats routinely behave like Royalty. Barbara Boxer thinks she’s a Duchess. Most Democrats are millionaires and live extremely well off the backs of poor people. It’s Republicans who go to work, work hard, earn livings, become rich, then have to listen to the whining and barfing about “the rich!”
Obama is so tired! He looks backward to Lenin. The hope and change thing was a fraud from the get-go.
Thank you Ric – I could not have said it any better.
the more golf he plays the less time he has to ruin the country
i say play on
To finish my comment: WHEN HE IS PRETENDING TO PLAY GOLF, HE TAKES A BREAK FROM SCREWING UP THE COUNTRY!!!!
This lazy bas**** needs to get back to work…..Pathetic
Barack Obama is an embarrassment to the game of golf. He is everything that golf is NOT! A dreadful cur, with no manners. One who exploits man’s tendency to be covetous. Like a festered splinter in the flesh of this great republic. Pray for him.
Psalms 109:8
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
AMEN!
Comparing apples to apples might not work here, where Bush is involved. Why not do a little digging into how many afternoons — in the middle of the workweek, btw — George W. Bush had the Secret Service strap his bike to the roof of the presidential limo and then took the presidential motorcade up the Baltimore Washington Turnpike — complete with the mandatory ambulance in the rear — so that he could go ride his bike in a park somewhere? This, while two wars were raging and the economy was tanking thanks completely to the options chosen by “The Decider” throughout the eight year disaster that was his presidency.
At the average of a 40 hour work week that is 5 weeks on the Golf course at our expense. Plus security and of course when he plays the course isn’t open for the rest of us. With all this practice he is still a shankopotomus, and manages to scew us all financially.
Maybe he should play a lot more.
Maybe he has to get them in now because he knows he only has one term as President!
Speaking of wasted production time, how much total time did Koffler spend on this useless story? The ‘no shit’ factor is through the roof, please find other angles that may actually be pertinent if you want to do some good, it’s a waste of talent.
Plus you have no clue about golf and I don’t like people that perpetuate stereotypes. A family of 4 could rent clubs and play golf at a number of the public courses by my house for less than movies/diner or a ball game. It’s not all Pebble Beach. It is not “well above the budget of most Americans,” what a gross misrepresentation, must be nice to be a blogger and sling whatever fiction you want. You can do better…
I promise to play one hour of golf for every Brave American Soldier who is killed. C’mon boys, I need your help! Barry
To even compare the president’s work schedule to a standard 8 hour work day simply serves to dilute your argument and make you look like a dope.
Your boy GW spent almost 3 of his 8 years in office tooling around his farm or playing in the woods at Camp David. This is FACT. When he was at the white house he was busy watching movies, choking on pretzels, and having laura tuck him in at his 8pm bedtime.
he should spend as much time fixing the border, and job creation and on the war saving american lives as he spends on vacation.
what was his real name/ Nero?
Get over the teleprompter. The man give multiple speeches a day. I’m simply glad he is able to READ, unlike his predecessor.
Who would really care if he is doing a good job???
Relaxation at the right time sharpens the mind and relieves the temp of the pressure cooker he is in. The voters will decide when he is overcooked.
this proves practice does not make perfect!!!!!!! Obama isno better at golf than he is at leading the country or speaking without his teleprompter!.. He just goes out to get his messages from Soros in private on his Blackberry
Oh praise be to ric.
not kidding brother ex marine here loved your well informed coments.
this guys Bo is a commie punk.
semper fi america in god we trust, land of the free home of the brave.
face it america there is more than just poor illeagle mexicans crossin our borders. thats probably how bo family got here.
The White House announced today that an unbroken string of golf courses will be built along the US-Mexican Border. The move is being made in order to give Pres. Obungle some motivation to come to the troubled border and do something useful about the flood of illegal immigrants. The White House added that the Pres. feels the pain of border residents and that it is much like the pain he feels in his back when he hooks his shot off the tee.
And, have you seen his golf swing? So, not only does he play golf all the time, on our dime (Secret Service, transportation, etc.) but he’s bad at it! Hmmm… and he’s the worst president in history. Do I see a parallel here?
Ric, you nailed it.
Do you realize that’s equivalent to an additional 25 days vacation in addition to all of the vacation time he’s taken with his family.
How many of us have played that much golf since Obama took office? Most of us have work, family and other activities that keep us busy. I wonder how he finds the time?
I would like to know if this two-bit phony has ever played golf before he highjacked the WH. Anyone? I heard the wife make a crack one day about tennis…she said “My husband ALWAYS beats me at tennis”. My bet is she never had a tennis racquet in her hand before she darkened the
WH, and he NEVER had a golf club in his hand before he darkened the WH! Community organizing thugs usually do not belong to country clubs!
wow i am not sure I have taken that many days off since he came into office. I am a self employed contractor slaving these days to feed myself and my family. This man thinks it a f ing party. Although fortunate I am self made, I create my own job everyday while this goes on. My message to Mr obama, not I did not say President. He is not acting presidential at all. Get to work, I am your boss as well as every American. We are sick of the partying president. Oh boo who, your doctor says you need more rest aw. So the hell do i, but I need to eat……
I can not wait till you are run out of this country as a traitor to the constitution.
On second thought let him play, takes time away from him destroying everything good in this country.
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