Sometimes I think the White House press corps is just trolling us all:
President Barack Obama played a round of golf with Tiger Woods on Sunday, but nobody knew about it until a lone tweet from a golf reporter went live. And now, the White House Press Corps Association has lodged a complaint against the administration, bemoaning the transparency afforded to pool reporters.
[….]White House Press Corps Association president Ed Henry lodged an official complaint with the White House, writing in a statement, “I can say a broad cross section of our members from print, radio, online and TV have today expressed extreme frustration to me about having absolutely no access to the President of the United States this entire weekend. There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency.”
The liberal Kevin Drum:
Yep. They “neared rebellion” not over OLC memos or drone strikes or FOIA tardiness or leak prosecutions, but over their inability to ask Obama questions—tough ones! penetrating ones!—before and after he hit the links. Sheesh.
Who can forget how submissive these clowns were in the run-up to Iraq:
I think we were very deferential, because in the East Room press conference, it’s live. It’s very intense. It’s frightening to stand up there… You are standing up on prime time live television, asking the president of the United States a question when the country is about to go to war.
Once upon a time, White House reporters might have had enough clout that they could force a president’s hand on certain matters of transparency. But they frittered it away by bowing to King George and whining about not getting to watch rounds of golf.
Bob2
Who is Doug Galt?
Bob2
Who is Doug Galt?
GregB
Obama should keep the press bus loaded with good barbecue and quail wings. That kept ’em pretty satisfied back in the days of George the Kind and Benevolent.
SatanicPanic
Or they actually think hanging out with Tiger Woods is worse than going to war. I wouldn’t put that past them.
burnspbesq
Does the White House press corps serve any identifiable purpose any more?
Alex S.
@SatanicPanic:
Obama cheated on his wife by proxy!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Never pick a fight with people who buy
inkin-bred stupidity and narcissism by the barrel./updated for modern times
Villago Delenda Est
This incident demonstrates precisely why lining these whiny ass titty-babies up against a wall and allowing a platoon of infantry to conduct live fire drills is so appealing.
cmorenc
The press never whined when they weren’t allowed to accompany Ike on a golfing round at Augusta National.
burnspbesq
ETA: And if Obama doesn’t accede to their ridiculous demands, then what?
Forum Transmitted Disease
It would be helpful to have the press down on their knees sucking the president’s dick and agenda – and McCain showed all you need is a tire swing and some cheap-ass BBQ to get that to happen – but I gotta confess that it makes me feel all warm and happy inside to watch them wail as he treats them the same way one treats that ex who’s just a little too needy.
A full litter box with the words “complaints go here” Sharpied on the side is the next logical step.
danielx
Preznit give me turkee.
ranchandsyrup
Even the Gawker empire is scoring points on the butthurt press corpse. http://gawker.com/5985342/the-politico-is-mad-that-the-white-house-does-and-doesnt-talk-to-the-politico
Bashing of the Politico is always good.
minutemaid
passive aggressive concern troll Doug Galt trapped in a world he does not understand.
schrodinger's cat
When I lived in MD outside DC, I once bumped into her at a concert at the University of Maryland. I actually went and spoke to her, she seemed nice enough in person. Her daughter was with her. But that quote is the height obsequiousness, grow a backbone or look for another job.
YellowJournalism
Why do I get the feeling that they are actually more upset about not getting access to Tiger Woods at that moment rather than the President?
Misterpuff
@danielx:
Preznit give me tee time.
jibeaux
I don’t even understand the “transparency” argument. Obama needed to announce that he was golfing with Tiger, or invite all of them with him, or….? Is he allowed to have seksytime with Michelle without letting them all know first, or is that part of the transparency?
SatanicPanic
@Alex S.: Shall we start drawing up the impeachment papers?
Poopyman
“Now watch this drive…”
“… bitches.”
jl
Why didn’t they go nuke over the secret skeet shooting excursions at Camp David?
And, IIRC, Obama’s bowling stunk in the 2008 election (edit: in fact I think the press deemed it a risky campaign move that might, just might alienate him from Joe Sixpack and lose himself the election!), and I read once he is practicing regularly in the secret WH bowling bunker. And the WH museum page has a pic of Dub bowling (in a suit and tie?). But NO OBAMA!
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/floor0/bowling-alley.htm
But no pics of Obama bowling. Clearly a sign he still stinks at it.
I guess it was a celeb was involved. Where is my in-depth exploratory analysis and hypothesis generating investigation leading?
The WH press corps is made of schmucks who could not score jobs at Tiger Beat or TMZ?
I dunno. I report, you decide.
Heliopause
Wolf Blitzer and his pals were going on about how being seen with Tiger Woods is bad optics for the President, because Tiger is a womanizer or something. There really aren’t adequate words in the English language to express how childish mainstream journalists are.
Andrew
Maybe if they could ask questions as tough as those provided during a Google Hangout, I wouldn’t tell them to kindly shut the fuck up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=&v=kp_zigxMS-Y
ricky
How on earth did Ed Henry get elected? Is this his first or second term? How come he hasn’t brought us together by now?
Poopyman
@jibeaux: No seksytime! At all!
If it was good enough for both Bushes …
Ted & Hellen
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, yeah.
Tumbrels. We get it.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@jibeaux:
The one intelligent (but deeply immoral bordering on evil) interpretation I can think of for the press’ obsessive desire to be hanging on BHO’s elbow ever minute of the day, is that they are convinced that (God forbid!) some nut is going to take a shot at him and they all want to be there to be live on the scene in front of the cameras when it happens.
I can readily believe that they are that evil; I’m not so sure they are that smart.
Ted & Hellen
Does anyone here really buy that Obama shoots skeet though?
I’m happy to see him pull one over on the bogus beltway press, but no, not really feeling it.
jl
@jibeaux: Well, I assume Michelle would announce an event where she cooks health food with Paula Deen in the WH kitchen!
Hoodie
Harrumph!
jl
@Ted & Hellen: OK, thanks. New scandal! What was Obama really shooting at on Aug 4? Maybe Barack and Joe hold shotgun duels when they are both at Camp David. For the funs of it.
dmsilev
Temper tantrum, round 2, is even sadder: Obama, the puppet master (warning: Politico link)
There’s a lot of verbiage, but it really boils down to this:
Villago Delenda Est
@Heliopause:
Leslie Blitzer? The airhead twit who argued with his own on-air expert guests about whether or not the “Balloon Boy” could be floating over Denver?
I’ve got news for Leslie. It’s whether or not the Balloon Boy could grip the Balloon by the husk, it’s a simple question of weight ratios.
Roger Moore
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I don’t think it’s so much that they expect anything bad to happen to him as it is that their main job is to be there just in case anything newsworthy happens. It wouldn’t necessarily be something terrible happening to the President; it could be any newsworthy event that requires immediate response. For example, think about the value of having the press present when Bush II was informed about the 9/11 attacks; they couldn’t have caught him if they hadn’t been along to watch him read My Pet Goat. If they aren’t allowed to tag along to every stupid thing he does, they risk missing out on something important like that.
SatanicPanic
@Ted & Hellen: Sure. If I were somewhere where it was set up for me and I didn’t have to do any work. I’ve done a lot of things (ride snowmobiles + quads, waterski, etc.) that I would never actually take up as hobbies because I was at someone’s house and they offered.
YellowJournalism
@Heliopause: I guess he should stay away from most of the House and Senate, then, too!
dmsilev
@jl:
He was shooting at other guns of course. That’s how he’s going to get rid of them all. All but one remaining gun, of course.
jibeaux
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: In this case, I expect they just really, really wanted a picture of the president golfing with Tiger. That would sell. But the idea that he’s not being “transparent” by not giving them access to something like that is absurd on its face. You don’t measure whether or not your government has sufficient sunlight in it by how many Tigers are in your photo ops.
Napoleon
@Ted & Hellen:
Yeah, I do BECAUSE THEY HAVE A PICTURE OF HIM DOING IT.
Idiot.
Oh and the picture obviously was not done after the fact since leaves are on the trees.
(BTW, I can easily see why he would – At some point he likely asked whoever it is that is in charge of CD “hey what do you to do here” and one of the things listed was skeet to which it is easy enough seeing someone answer “really? I have never done that before – schedule a time for me”)
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
This is because local reporters ask non-stupid, idiotic “horse race” questions of BHO, and BHO is trying to communicate with their viewers about what he’s doing for the viewers, not offal like the scum of The Politico.
Peej
They should be happy that Obama vacations in Hawaii, rather than Crawford, Texas.
Bokonon
OMG! It is TIGER WOODS GATE!!!
jl
@Napoleon: Trap and skeet shooting are fun, if you can even halfway aim, so why wouldn’t some one do it, if the facilities were there?
Edit: I also remember Obama was wearing ear protectors. I’m surprised there was no scandal about the sissified alienating effect of that. I saw no toe protectors in the pic of Dub bowling. Now, there is a fearless risk takering presidenter in chief!
Just like bowling can be slightly fun even if you totally stink at it (and there is enough pizza and beer).
schrodinger's cat
@schrodinger’s cat: Her == Bumiller.
jibeaux
Similar thoughts from TV’s Frank:
MikeJ
@Villago Delenda Est: I seem to recall that the national press hate Al Franken because he talks to the newspapers in his home state, where people vote either for or against him, instead of talking to the NYT.
I know there are many hard working, honest people in local news. It’s a pity only the stupid ones get a bigger platform.
scav
mmmm. Recently re-elected president talking to local reporters rather than the self-annointed gilded gatekeepers? Should we do a whip-round to buy them a clue?
Or, if they insist on having a vowel, give them an e for an i — they’re already relying on tin-foil for their sparkle.
jl
And to think that there was a public pic of William Howard Taft’s bathtub, which was the size of small swimming pool, back in the day.
The decline of transparency in DC is shocking.
Napoleon
@jl:
Absolutely, and to believe that he didn’t shoot skeet is pretty much adopting a crazy birther style conspiracy theory along the lines that they staged the photo sometime in the past just on the off chance that if Obama out of the blue claimed to have shot skeet they would have a photo to go with it or staged the photo as part of a plan that if Obama was ever asked if he shot a gun he should claim he shot skeet on occasion.
jl
@Napoleon: Yeah, sure. Spin yer fairytales of DemocRAT honesty. Remember, there are a lot of Clintonites in the WH. They can plan these secret plots ahead of time, TWO LEVELS DEEP!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Peej:
It would be a terrible shame if the WH press corps were covering him visting the crater at Kilauea and they were to get a little too close to the edge and then the pushing and shoving amidst the press scrum were to get out of hand as the reporters at the back tried to get a better view and oops, oh well, accidents happen. Too bad for Ed Henry, et. al. that they happened to be in the front row.
On the other hand that might give Pele a bad case of indigestion, so maybe not…
dmsilev
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I believe traditionally volcanic sacrifices are supposed to be innocent virgins. Feeding White House press corps members to the volcano, however satisfying it may be, will simply anger the gods.
Mandalay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yet Blitzer was quite happy to work alongside Erick Erickson, who had referred to SC Justice David Souter as a “goat fucking child molester”.
Blitzer has no problem with those optics.
Hill Dweller
@Napoleon: Even if the WH hadn’t shown the pic, Obama talked about shooting skeet at Camp David in 2010. It would have taken five minutes of research to find his previous statement, but the lazy hacks in the Beltway couldn’t be bothered to interrupt their mindless amplification of the newest wingnut conspiracy theory.
jl
There is no question in my mind that Obama has pics of him pretending to throw horseshoes and zipping down a slip ‘n’ slide. All in preparation for his next fiendish tyrannical moves.
Edit: When supposedly candid pics of Obama seeming to play badminton come out, time to head for your bunkers immediately.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@dmsilev:
Couldn’t we creatively re-interpret “virgins” as “people who act like they are still in middle-school”?
dmsilev
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Sure, but you get to be the one who explains that to the volcano gods.
MikeJ
@jl: When slip ‘n’ slides are outlawed only outlaws will slip ‘n’ slide.
ranchandsyrup
Narcissism + tribalism = I can’t believe my lying eyes that are showing me something that doesn’t fit my narrative.
Poopyman
@Napoleon: They’re out there, and they’ve been termed “skeeters”.
The Lodger
@jl: I can see duelling advantages for both Obama and Biden.
Obama: younger, therefore having a good chance of better eyesight and quicker reaction time.
Biden: He’s a vice president. We all know those bastards will shoot anybody in the face.
catclub
@dmsilev: “All but one remaining gun, of course. ”
In the end there can be only one.
— Highlander
Cacti
My only complaint of O’s handling of the media, is that he doesn’t treat them with enough contempt.
David Hunt
@jl:
That would require actually admitting that he was, in fact, shooting skeet. The only reason that picture got national circulation is because the wingnuts simply wouldn’t believe that he would ever touch a gun after he talked about it and demanded photographic proof.
Of course, after the photo was released he suffered the same bent of truthism that the birthers subjected him to. The proof that he submitted is insufficient/obviously fraudulent; give us more proof!
Look at @Ted & Hellen: ‘s comment above. He/she/they are expressing disbelief even though they’ve seen the photo. They just can’t believe that he’d have fun in any type of gun-related activity.
Cacti
@David Hunt:
We need to see the long form photo.
El Cid
Obama just needs to convince them that there’s a major military action about to start, and they will be offered exclusive access with all the hard-chargin’ gung-ho military heroes they want to be photographed beside, and then get some reserve units needing practice to go off into some badlands or desert area in the USA and simulate getting ready for combat. Film the whole thing for amusement’s sake, and keep all the footage of these by-name-only “journalists” and threaten to release their orgasmic excitement / pants-peeing skeeritude anytime they get out of line. Defeat them by giving them what they are begging for.
IowaOldLady
These people were convinced Romney was going to stomp Obama in November. Evidence is kind of useless in talking to people like that.
Mandalay
It is astounding that Ed Henry could be so clueless. This is what he whined even after his little tantrum had blown up in his face:
He freely admits that it was nothing to do with news, and only about being denied a photo-op, as though this is nothing to be embarrassed about in the slightest.
In terms of being a complete and utter Washington dumbfuck I can’t think of anyone worse than Henry.
scav
@Cacti: I think physical matter behaves in very strange ways at that level of proper contempt.
MikeJ
@El Cid: Can’t we just load them on the B-ark?
jl
What is really tragic about this Nobama golf conspiracy story is that it buried the Scott Brown butt-tweeting scandal.
NonyNony
@Ted & Hellen:
Yes. I believe he’s shot skeet at least once.
Obama is the kind of leader who does crap like that. Tries to walk a mile in other people’s shoes and whatnot. Some folks are sport shooters, and those folks vote. So I have no problem envisioning a scenario where Obama gives it a shot because he wants to be able to say “oh yeah, I’ve been skeet shooting myself” when talking to a potential voter. And he isn’t the kind of guy who makes crap like that up or exaggerates about it (because he knows that Clinton Rules are in effect for any Democratic President), so he’d actually have to go do it to be able to talk about it.
The fact that the right-wingers went apeshit over how it had to be a lie is just more evidence of the fact that they have the President built up as a straw liberal who hates everything that they love, and if it turned out that he actually enjoyed something that they enjoy they would have an existential crisis trying to figure out what to do about it (do I give up my love of sport shooting? Do I admit that the black Kenyan Usurper has good taste? Better deny reality – it’s easier that way!)
Mnemosyne
@David Hunt:
You have to remember that you’re talking about someone who’s still convinced the entire takedown of Bin Laden was faked, but has no alternate explanation of (for example) how that downed US helicopter ended up outside of Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan except that it was all part of the conspiracy, maaaaaannnn.
IOW, we’re not really talking about someone who has the ability to examine evidence and come to a rational conclusion based on that evidence.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Mandalay:
I went down to the river on a Saturday morn,
A-lookin’ around just to see who was born.
I found a little chicken down on his knees,
I went up and yelled to him, “Please, please, please!”
He said, “Don’t ya tell Henry,
Don’t ya tell Henry,
Don’t ya tell Henry,
Apple’s got your fly”.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
I actually just got a copy of my
birth certificatecertificate of live birth from my parents; they were clearing stuff out of the house they could give us as packets at their 50th Anniversary. When I saw it, I loudly demanded to know if it was the long-form vault copy, which got a good laugh out of everyone present.Mandalay
@Ted & Hellen:
No, not really, but it is still far more plausible than Romney’s absurd and transparent lie that he had hunted varmints since he was 15:
Ron Thompson
I think “White House Press Corps Association president Ed Henry” pretty much says it all.
If you want to be taken seriously, don’t elect a Fox “News” clown as your president.
dmbeaster
Hey, being denied access to a true infotainment headliner like Obama/Woods playing golf really hurts their profit model. No wonder they complained about this — it hit them where it really matters.
Jay C
@dmsilev:
More than their continuing existence fabricating BS inaniies in place of real journalism does already??
@dmsilev:
So IOW, the basis for a lot (most?) of these complaints about President Obama’s “transparency” boil down to “It’s not that Obama doesn’t give interviews, he just doesn’t give them to ME!” ??
What are these people, like TWELVE ??
ricky
@Mandalay: Nobody in the press corp asked for photos of teen Mitt proudly holding a rodent by its ear or better yet a family photo with a stuffewd rabbit above the mantle. This shows the degree to which they ignore the liberal blogosphere.
El Cid
@MikeJ: This is cleverer — this is their fantasy. Make it an episode of Fantasy Island.
patroclus
Ed Henry launched a “formal complaint” about not having access to a golf game??!!! And he actually used the word “transparency”??!!!! After watching Rachel Maddow’s retrospective on the baldfaced WMD whoppers last night and remembering the WH press corps’ slavering hagiographical stenography in connection with all those lies amidst the entire run-up to the Iraq war, I think I’m going to look up the definition of irony.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@ricky:
I don’t believe that Mr Willard Romney (millionaire, I own a mansion and a yacht) ever caught up with that wascally wabbit. Not even when he was vewwy, vewwy qwiet.
Ash Can
LOL! I hope the WH tells Ed Henry et al. to piss into a high wind. And this
is simply precious. Elizabeth, dear, professionals in this situation use a word like “exhilarating” or “exciting,” not “frightening.” Do try to remember that.
@jl:
I know about the drunk-tweeting, but not this. Damn, what’d I miss?
Capri
@Napoleon:
How naive can you be? Of course they’ve got trees with leaves on them at their secret sound stage. It’s right next to the moon set they used to fake the Apollo landing.
El Cid
@Ted & Hellen: Why is it difficult to believe that someone on vacation does some activity which is readily available and which one doesn’t normally do?
I’ve gone on plenty of vacations or excursions in which there was some tourist or hobbyist activity that I did which I don’t “do” on any routine basis.
I don’t “do” whitewater rafting, in any regular or adherent sense, but I’ve gone whitewater rafting when it was there to do and me and other people bought such a package.
Would someone take a photo of me doing so and wonder whether I “do” that?
I’ve also gone to firing ranges and shot guns. I don’t own a gun, don’t plan to, don’t hunt, don’t plan to take up hunting as a hobby.
But if there was some firing range at some recreational destination, and I had nothing better to do, I might go do that — but I’d never on that basis claim that this meant any more than exactly that, some recreational activity I occasionally undertook.
I’d do it if some gun nerd freak were assuming that I must be so afraid of guns I’d never fired one, or must be against any firearm existing any where. But I wouldn’t claim to be ‘a hunter’ or a ‘firearms enthusiast’ or ‘amateur target shooter’ or whatever.
I don’t think that Obama made any strong claim about it other than that he enjoyed it. That’s not exactly a strong claim, unless someone is thinking that this means Obama must be fervently preparing each morning for his target shooting, etc.
If my summer vacation came with someone ready to hand me the keys to a race car and offering me free driving tips etc round the course, I’d do it, but I wouldn’t call myself a race car driver, nor would I hesitate to admit that I did it at such times and enjoyed it.
Another Halocene Human
@jibeaux: Ugh, did you see what he linked in his twitter? Shitty human being Karl Rove did a shitty MST3K ripoff using clips from the SOTU. It blows incredibly hard and is being savaged in comments.
Roger Moore
@patroclus:
Well, he’s pretty transparently stupid and partisan, so it’s understanding that he’s interested in transparency.
David Hunt
@Capri:
That’s utter BS. It’s well known that they couldn’t fake low gravity with any degree of believability so they constructed the sound stage on Mars and painted all the red sand grey with WWII surplus paint. Sure it was hard, but they were in a fake space-race with the Commies. There was no expense they wouldn’t incur to fake-win the the race to the Moon.
ranchandsyrup
@Ash Can: Scottie2Hottie claims he did not drunk text and nary a drop of alcohol has passed his lips for the past 20 some years. Instead, he blamed his twitter twattering on the tiny keyed (?) and oh so sensitive iphone 5. We’re supposed to ignore the fact that he could have proof read his tweet but bhwateversfsdlkfj.
http://thehill.com/video/senate/283721-scott-brown-i-didnt-drunk-tweet-in-bqhatevwr-incident
bemused
They filed a formal complaint! I would have taken this was an Onion or a SNL skit. I am almost embarrassed for the press corps. Who cares about stories about the president or any president playing golf? Evidently only the press corps and other media. More proof they only “report” for their own tribe.
jamick6000
I love how Kevin Drum’s first name on this blog is “the liberal”
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Hey rancid one: Quit putting words in my mouth AGAIN. I am not “convinced” of anything regarding this matter, including the official story. Quite a different statement from the twisted bullshit you’re always spouting to “interpret” what other people write.
Fuck yourself nasty, you dishonest twit.
Bokonon
If Scott Brown’s butt is capable of typing sending coherent tweets on an autonomous basis, without the rest of his body being engaged, or being aware? I am not sure that this is a good thing.
However, it means that Scott Brown’s butt is enormously talented, and that it has a bright future in show business.
What else has Scott Brown’s butt been doing without his awareness? It would be irresponsible for us not to ask.
Ted & Hellen
@El Cid:
Good lord, relax, it was an off-hand comment.
You’re over-spinning.
Mandalay
@El Cid:
It is not difficult at all, and you may be correct. But I find it equally easy to believe that there was also a political calculation, complete with photo, when Obama went skeet shooting.
It’s smart PR, and it is a little naive to think that Obama’s handlers would never dream of such a thing. Doing it without any fanfare, and then wheeling out the photo months later, was pure win, but it may also demonstrate meticulous planning.
ruemara
@Napoleon: That wasn’t really Obama shooting. That was an arrangement of pixels via bytes. Don’t be fooled!
Mandalay
@David Hunt:
I believe the photo. But I don’t necessarily believe that is was nothing more than Obama having “fun”. It’s plausible (though unprovable) that there was political calculation behind the skeet shoot and the subsequent photo.
And if there wasn’t his minders are slipping.
Bokonon
You know … if Obama had allowed Fox the photo-op they wanted of him golfing with Tiger Woods, Fox would have proceeded to run it, and turn it into some sort of attack. The type of cheap short, thirty-second segment that Fox runs all the time, reinforcing their perpetual claims that Obama is a lazy, narcissistic, work-avoiding celebrity-chasing hack. They do it all the time.
Imagine – Fox would lead with the video, and would say something like, “Heyyyy … soul brothers go golfing! President Barack Hussein Obama found time out of his VERRRY busy schedule to go golfing with disgraced, philandering celebrity golf player Tiger Woods! Maybe they talked together about their woman troubles! But seriously … when are you going to find time to answer the American people’s questions about BENGHAZI, Mister President?? So disgraceful.”
The media (and specifically Fox) hate it when Obama won’t play their chump, and starves them of easy content. They need these sorts of visuals for their celebrity news hate-a-thon.
Kathleen
@patroclus: I still sputter with rage when I think about msm complicity in the destruction of Iraq and its people and the disastrous impact that war had on many American soldiers and their families. And now many of those media whores (how I miss that web site) have the nerve to concern troll about veterans who cannot get jobs, who suffer from PTSD, who commit suicide, etc. etc. etc. My greatest wish for them is that at some point they all go full metal Lady MacBeth when they can’t wash the blood off of their hands. These shameless propatainment pimps deserve ceaseless mockery.
gelfling545
In aid of what? They’d have had to be prescient to imagine that there would be events that would raise a demand for gun control.
jl
” I believe the photo. But I don’t necessarily believe that is was nothing more than Obama having “fun”. It’s plausible (though unprovable) that there was political calculation behind the skeet shoot and the subsequent photo.
And if there wasn’t his minders are slipping. ”
Some truth in that. Which is why I wonder that there is no scandal over the lack of bowling pics.
I guess if there are a spate of mass murders by bowling ball (or pin, don’t forget those) we will hear about it.
jl
” In aid of what? ”
In the aid of the President looking totally cool in everything he does, or that will appeal to wide audience. That is the PR person’s job.
maya
The Whitey House Press Corps has never been the same since Dancin’ Dave left it for loftier journalistic excellence and performance.
maya
@Kathleen: But, but, but, as leading war-whore, Tom Brokaw said much, much later; Hey! They did the best they could with the limited information the Bush Admin was giving them.
I’m still waiting for Little Tommy Tu’pants to inform what’s left of the Greatest Generation what ignorant putzes they were to actually pay for the wars they were fighting with higher taxes, rationing, salvage and bond drives. Not to mention a higher commitment to service when the conventional wisdom of the Repo Bush Admin’s Iraq-Afghanistan wars stance was two tax cuts first and then we go to war, no bid contracts with little oversight (if any) and everyone just continue shopping or buy a house or two as if nothing is happening.
Can’t see many questions raised with any of that. Nope. Heck of a job, Tommy.
muddy
He wasn’t aiming very high in the photo. I happily imagine that he was actually shooting at a cardboard cutout of Dick Cheney. Right in the face! I know I could happily do that all afternoon.
Mandalay
@gelfling545:
I hope you are snarking, but if not:
[Q] Just how “prescient” do you have to be “to imagine that there will be events that would raise a demand for gun control”?
[A] You would have to be a complete fool in denial to imagine otherwise.
SATSQ
Origuy
@The Lodger:
Burr got Hamilton in the abdomen.
maya
@Mandalay: Only enlightened gun owners were “prescient” in their knowledge back in 2008, or even earlier, that Obummer was going to confiscate their 2nd Amendment garunteed Friday night dates.
But then shouldn’t they have been prescient enough to expect Obummer in a shotgun photo too? And prescient enough to foretell the hilarity of their shotgun photo doubtings?
This prescient thing is fun.
Darkrose
@jibeaux: Wait…is that really TV’s Frank? I’ve loved him ever since seeing him and some other MST-ers on a “game show” panel with Adam from Mythbusters.
SiubhanDuinne
@patroclus:
Don’t bother. Irony rolled over, stuck its paws in the air, and died.
grandpajohn
@MikeJ: Well, like in many other fields its not what you know but who you blow.
El Cid
If I were Obama you damn right I’d have pictures taken of myself doing gun-related activities just to piss off the gun dorks who think it all belongs to them.
JustRuss
@Ted & Hellen: Dude…or not…sure. I’ve never owned a gun, but my truck drivin’ professional logger brother-in-law took me skeet shooting once. Good times. If I could have picked up a cheap used shot gun on Craigs List (you can’t), I’d probably own one. so yeah, I can see Obama shooting skeet on a Camp David weekend.