Thomas Friedman's "Obama, Tiger, Golf and Politics": Obama Has Lost His Swing

At a recent business meeting held at the offices of one of my clients, I was asked by one of their senior executives, "What's your sport?" I suppose this person, whom I had just met, assumed that I play golf because I live close to a golf course. Sadly, my golf experience involves a one-time, frustrated attempt at clubbing balls at a driving range, and it has always been my assumption that golf is much like playing the piano: Before reaching a proficiency level that will enable you to enjoy either the game or the instrument, many hundreds of hours of training are necessary. Re the piano, I would only add that I am tone deaf, and this deficiency has not been abetted by a decline in my hearing owing to proximity to loud noise, i.e. automatic rifle and artillery fire, over the course of many years. (Query: Is survival a sport?)

In his New York Times op-ed entitled "Obama, Tiger, Golf and Politics" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/opinion/friedman-obama-tiger-golf-and-politics.html?_r=1&hp), Thomas Friedman observes that he is pleased that Obama is vacationing in Martha's Vineyard and hopes that he is playing a lot of golf. Comparing golf with Obama's style of governing, Friedman writes:

"For months now, Obama has been playing not to lose, keeping his own plans for a 'Grand Bargain' on debt, deficits, taxes, jobs and investment vague, while waiting for the Republicans to say crazier and crazier stuff — like promising the return of $2-a-gallon gasoline, or insisting that climate change was made up by scientists to get research grants (but politicians taking millions from oil companies can be trusted to tell us the truth on this issue), or that Texas has a right to secede. But while the G.O.P. candidates have been obliging the president with their nuttiness, it has not helped Obama’s poll ratings.

. . . .

Obama is smart, decent and tough, with exactly the right instincts about where the country needs to go. He has accomplished a lot more than he’s gotten credit for — with an opposition dedicated to making him fail. But lately he is seriously off his game. He’s not Jimmy Carter. He’s Tiger Woods — a natural who’s lost his swing. He has so many different swing thoughts in his head, so many people whispering in his ear about what the polls say and how he needs to position himself to get re-elected, that he has lost all his natural instincts for the game. He needs to get back to basics."

Obama "has accomplished a lot more than he's gotten credit for"? Yeah, right. Like removing American ground forces from Afghanistan and providing specifics involving a program for economic revival.

Obama "has lost all his natural instincts for the game"? Which game? Campaigning or governing? Campaigning and governing are two different "sports," and with the aid of a teleprompter, Obama proved himself a natural at campaigning. On the other hand, he has been sadly deficient at wielding the reins of government, which begins with the ability to reach prompt, confident decisions without tortuous vacillation over the course of months, e.g., Obama's determination to escalate American involvement in Afghanistan coupled with an endpoint broadcast to the enemy.

Will Obama regain his swing? You can't regain something you never had. On the other hand, I am confident the president looks forward to hitting the campaign trail and abandoning the sorrows of governing, whose relevant skills he never learned.

Sorry, but I am going to have to cut this blog entry short: "What's that, dear? Yes, dear. Immediately, dear. I didn't hear you, dear." Ah, yes, even the diminishment of hearing has its silver lining. "Only kidding, dear."