In the world of substance-challenged political junkies like Chuck Todd, the problem with the president playing golf in the midst of a crisis is "optics," and for such a junkie as Todd, it's a big score if you can get the president
to admit that:
He smiled for the cameras — and now he’s blaming the press.
President Obama admitted Sunday that playing golf on Martha’s Vineyard soon after talking tough about the militants who beheaded American photojournalist James Foley provided the media with bad “optics” — but suggested that the issue is not with his leadership, but with the theatrics of the presidency and the aggressiveness of the modern press.
“It’s always a challenge when you’re supposed to be on vacation. Because you’re followed everywhere. And part of what I’d love is a vacation from the press,” Obama said
during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But there’s no doubt that after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made, that you know, I should’ve anticipated the optics (of playing golf).”
Do any normal people out there really think "optics" was the problem? We're looking at an absolutely brutal terrorist organization that is overrunning a nation that is supposed to be a U.S. ally - an organization Obama smugly dismissed just eight months ago as "Al Qaeda's JV team," and that Obama admits even now he has no strategy for defeating.
The problem with the round of golf was not that it looks bad for Obama. The problem is that Obama has a job to do to protect the security of this nation and its allies, and when he's dicking around on the golf course, he's not doing it. The fact that he fails to understand that, and instead whines about the press, demonstrates that Obama also thinks the whole point of being president is to make himself look good.
I do not begrudge Obama his vacation. I take vacations. But I do my job. He doesn't do his. Is his job harder than mine? Yes it is. If it's too hard for him, then he shouldn't have sought it, nor should he continue in it if he's decided not to put in the effort necessary to do it correctly.
