What is it about golf that so raises the hackles of Republicans not named John Boehner?
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has thrown his hat into the ring along with a slew of other GOP pundits and politicians who have slammed President Obama for playing too much golf. The former Massachusetts governor, who earlier this week lambasted Obama for planning a 17-day get-away to Hawaii, has taken his plaint to the people via a new website designed to raise funds at the expense of the First Duffer’s hobby.
“By donating id=”mce_marker”8 [get it? 18 holes on a golf course? id="mce_marker" for each hole?], you can help us put President Obama on a permanent vacation. We cannot afford another round of President Obama’s failed leadership,” Romney pontificates on the fortyfore.com site that poses the musical question, “‘Fore’ More Years?’” and claims that Obama has played 1,584 holes since taking office. “It’s time to have a president whose idea of being ‘hands on’ doesn’t mean getting a better grip on the golf club.”
Romney is hardly the first — and likely won’t be the last — to lash out at Obama for spending too much time on the links while other Americans can’t find jobs. Independent observers, however, suggested that the Mittster might want to do the math before hitching his campaign to Obama’s fondness for fairways.
The Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor pointed out that George W. Bush had taken far more time off at this point in his presidency than the current occupant of the Oval Office has. Indeed, Bush was off the clock for all or part of 228 vacations days, while Obama played hooky for all or part of 54 days, according to the Post.
The Monitor added that by midsummer — his first 31 months in office — Obama had tallied 61 vacation days. For the same timeframe in their tenures, Bush and Ronald Reagan had spent 180 days and 112 days, respectively, on their ranches.
The CSM also noted that Romney may be “throwing stones from the back lawn of a glass house” — his 3,000-sq.-ft. beach house in La Jolla, Calif., to be exact. With Romney reportedly planning to “more than double the living space” of his id=”mce_marker”2 million San Diego retreat, the publication wondered how that would go over with out-of-work Americans for whom Romney claims to have such empathy.
Who knows? It could be a winning tactic as long as he’s not playing golf.
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