Point Counterpoint
Should U.S. Presidents Play Golf During Their Presidency?
YES
If we all agree that recreation is an accept- able part of the human lifestyle, surely we can all agree that even the President
of the United States—the job that used to be called “the most powerful man in the free world” until the economy dropped like an anvil through a wet cardboard box, and now can be rated as “somewhere in the middle of the pack among the most powerful men in the free world”—is allowed to recreate, as well. After all, as Jack Nicholson
reminded us in The Shining, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” And nobody wants any Presi- dent—Democrat or Republican—to start picking up an axe and roaming deserted hotel hallways. That’s a bad look for the U.S.A. So, then, what sport can the
President play, acceptable to the voting public? Slow-pitch softball requires rustling up nine a side, and that means a game can get canceled because the Secretary of Agriculture is working late on a fruit fl y press release. No good. Bowling would seem acceptable, and nothing would be cooler than to have your own bowling ball embossed with the Presidential seal, but we can’t risk the Prez spraining a wrist ligament, or blowing out a rotator cuff. It’s hard to look mean in a showdown with Congress when the Chief Executive has a wrist-guard on. I would submit, then, that golf is the
most perfect of activities for a sitting President, and should be allowed and embraced wholeheartedly, regardless
22 / NCGA.ORG / FALL 2010
of party affi liation. Republicans, make room in your heart for that Democratic tee time, not unlike how you open your country club to caddies on Mondays. And Democrats, open your mind to the notion of a Republican President stick- ing a peg in the ground. Who knows? Maybe that GOP skipper will begin to see the benefi ts of a slight draw. The country shall be a fi ner place for it.
Think of the benefi ts: • It has been said
there is no fi ner test of a man’s character than match play golf. What bet- ter way then for a sitting President to assess the heart of an “enemy” prime minister or dignitary than proposing a little $2 Nassau? Say Country A is blockading some U.S. ships. Or Country B is not coop- erating with our attempts to extradite a criminal. Our President could invite Coun- try A or Country B’s leader to an afternoon round, and begin to get a read on the man or woman. Does the sin- ister leader give putts inside four feet? Could be a sign of weakness, or perhaps a gener- ous spirit. At the turn, when our President is 2-down and proposes: “What do you say
we make this interesting?” the sinister leader’s response can be telling— is he or she a riverboat gambler? And better yet, when it gets to the late holes, does the Opposing Leader begin to choke all over the place, puking his or her guts out, blowing a 1-up lead with two to play, shanking shots and blast- ing putts eight feet by? Well, then our President surely has the goods to know that he can stare down this leader under duress. The blockade shall be lifted, the criminal extradited, and all because we got into the other cat’s wallet. • Another upside: Our President
playing golf will surely humanize the leader and make us realize we’re all dogged victims of inexorable fate. Say, for example, you are not a fan of a sitting President. And then you see some video of him playing golf.
You see the heart-breaking lip out. You see the kick off the cart path into a water hazard. You see him ground his club in a hazard at Whistling Straits, because nobody in the world—even the President—could have known that was a bunker...wait. That was Dustin Johnson. Never mind. At any rate, you, the golfer, can feel the bond with the President you do not like. You
know the lip-out. You know the cart path kick. You know that nobody could know that was a bunker at Whistling Straits ...wait. Dustin Johnson, again. Sorry about that. You get my point: empathy on the golf course can be a powerful bond and maybe end our right-left dichotomy once and for all. After all, if there’s one thing we have in common,
it’s that we’ve all been hugely screwed by the golf gods. As a President once said, and I para-
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