Posted on 08/27/2014 5:24:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
In some prominent corners of the liberal media, the grousing has begun about President Obama's habit of hitting the golf course during crises without any concern for looking cavalier. Everyone knows he joyfully hit the links at Martha's Vineyard five minutes after a nationally televised address expressing his disgust at the horrific execution of American journalist James Foley by ISIS extremists in Syria. He played nine rounds during this most recent vacation in a year filled with vacations.
On the front page of The New York Times, they reported "a firestorm of criticism erupted over what many saw as a callous indifference to the slaughter he had just condemned." Their columnist Maureen Dowd mocked him with a faux-Gettysburg Address of golf. When Dowd hits a liberal like this, something serious is amiss.
And yet even this won't shake the TV networks' support for this man. They have worked overtime to dismiss the fuss as just GOP "politics as usual," and an imposition on Obama's need for rest and relaxation. On NBC, morning co-host Tamron Hall asked, "Does the optics of this matter, or is it just politics as usual in that town?" NBC political director Chuck Todd replied "Yes, it's politics as usual, but in this case, this is optics. This was stuff they should have seen coming. This is not new to them." In other words, it was OK to do it, just not to show him doing it.
Todd noted that ex-Obama aide David Axelrod expressed regret that maybe they were too hard on George W. Bush's summer vacations in Crawford, Texas. Democrats also loved mocking his dad's cigarette-boat rides as elitist when he vacationed in Maine. They also ridiculed President Reagan for chopping wood in California. So what's the difference? So did the networks, bobbing along with the Democratic attack line of the day.
If picking on vacation optics is cheap "politics as usual," then journalists should look at themselves as serial offenders, at least when the president's a Republican. With Obama, and before him Bill Clinton, the vacations were virtually romantacized by the press. Remember that silly photo of the Clintons awkwardly dancing on the Dominican Republic beach? Media outlets have had trouble finding anything elitist-sounding about the Obamas (or the Clintons) hanging out with the upper crust at Martha's Vineyard, even after they depart Washington, D.C., with jabs about the excesses of the greedy rich.
It's obvious at this point that Obama simply does not care about the optics of his golf obsession. George W. Bush gave up golfing in 2003 to avoid the optics during wartime. Obama seems to have doubled down, petulantly.
If the TV networks are ignoring this president's scandalous behavior, others aren't.
The New York Times also reported that "Nearly six years into his term, with his popularity at the lowest of his presidency, Mr. Obama appears remarkably distant from his own party on Capitol Hill, with his long neglect of would-be allies catching up to him."
In interviews with the Times, "nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers and senior congressional aides" suggested Obama's distaste for schmoozing with Democrats "has left him with few loyalists" to help him manage his "legacy" as his term winds down. He's even refusing to golf with members of Congress.
Even with these few press reports, the national media's optics police are still mostly lounging around.CNSNews.com noticed that Team Obama sent three representatives to the funeral of Michael Brown -- underscoring his victimhood status, which is a disgraceful activity for the federal government when the investigation is far from complete -- to assuage the enraged black activists across America. But the White House sent no representative -- not even a former press secretary like Jay Carney -- to the funeral of slaughtered journalist James Foley.
Arrgh
I've seen the reports about the silence or smattering of applause during his address. What I haven't heard about was the reception given to Col. Ollie North who spoke before the Øne. I'm thinking there's a contrast there, just a slight one, mind you :)
Fits his personality. Like any good dictator, he could give a flying fig about his polling, how he appears, and so on.
Two newly popularized terms I despise....”Optics” and “boots on the ground”....
Arrgh
I agree and let’s add “went missing” ech!
really? He flipped them off? no kidding? Anyone got a youtube?
Actually the term optics has been around since 1579
Anytime that arrogant pos is announced on Fox News to speak I mute my Tv. So I have no idea if he did or not, but it would not surprise me if he did since it is well known how much he loathes the miitary
I understand it was his traditional middle finger “scratch” at the beginning. But consider that unconfirmed - fitting his profile, but unconfirmed.
Also Twitter. Although I do have a twitter account i have absolutely no use for it
He’s doing this because optics no longer matter. Regardless of who wins the House and Senate this year he’s going to rule through executive fiat for the next two. He has a stacked sub-SCOTUS Judiciary (thanks to Harry Reid and the nuclear option) that will back him up.
IOW the Democrat Party, as a whole, just went under the bus. And who gives a rat’s a** what MoDo thinks about anything? Other than CZJ’s latest slinkly dress?
You’re right. He doesn’t care about important issues and he doesn’t care to hide his indifference to those issues. The really insulting thing to real Americans is that he holds us in such low regard that he doesn’t even try to make his lies believable, doesn’t even try to conceal the contempt he feels towards us. It is obvious he and his sycophants in the MSM feel he is above us, better than us.
Why should the Sutan care what his belly crawling bootlickers in the press think? He knows they will cover for him no matter what happens.
The only reason there is even a slight murmuring of complaint at all is because Foley was a bug in their own swarm.
that nasty piece of work
James Foley might have been rescued if Obama had not delayed the rescue effort for so long worrying about whether a failed attempt would hurt himself politically.
NBC political director Chuck Todd replied “Yes, it’s politics as usual, but in this case, this is optics.
What Chucky is really saying here is: We know this putz has no substance and he was only elected because we (the Press)were able to manufacture a persona of intelligence and empathy for the little guy. So we don’t want this moron lifting the curtain!
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