Bush’s sense of sacrifice includes giving up golf

May 14, 2008

The president has made all kinds of head-shaking comments over the years, but I’m really not sure what to make of this.

For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families.

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.

“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It’s just not worth it anymore to do.'”

So, let me get this straight. Five months after the invasion of Iraq, when Sergio Vieira de Mello was killed, the president decided to give up golf in order “to be in solidarity” with families who’ve lost loved ones. In effect, Bush is telling grieving loved ones, “I feel your pain; I’m not on the course.”

I should note, of course, that I think I understand what Bush is trying to say, and his point is not without merit. I suspect a parent of a fallen soldier might resent it if he or she sees the Commander in Chief having fun on the back nine while American servicemen and women are sacrificing on the battlefield. It might very well, as Bush put it, “send the wrong signal.”

That said, I think there are two main problems with the president’s sense of sacrifice.

First, if Bush were really that concerned about appearances, and doesn’t want “some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” I wonder why the president isn’t the least bit concerned about taking more vacation time than any of his predecessors. Indeed, no Commander in Chief, in war time or peace, has ever spent so much time way from the job.

If “some mom” might resent seeing the president play golf, might not that same mom resent seeing the president clear brush?

It speaks to a bizarre sense of what constitutes sacrifice in Bush’s mind. As Brandon Friedman put it, “In today’s world, sacrifice is defined in terms of not being able to afford a Hummer; of having to see a few images of war on TV; and of giving up golf.”

Second, as my friends at Blue Girl, Red State noted, Bush may have given up golf in 2003, but a knee injury was just as likely a culprit as a sense of “solidarity.”

Bush, 57, will have an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test on Thursday, Dec. 18[, 2003]. Last summer, Bush suffered a minor muscle tear in his right calf and that injury, along with aching knees, forced him to abandon his running routine. The calf strain healed by August when he had his annual physical, but the president said in September that he suspected he had a meniscus tear.

And for good measure, it’s also worth keeping in mind that Bush’s memory is a little shaky. He now believes he gave up golf after de Mello’s death in August 2003, but he was actually still golfing three months later.

Would Bush make up a story about when he gave up golf as some kind of ploy for sympathy? Or perhaps to create some kind of false sense of drama?

What a strange man.

What a strange man.

What a strange people to have endured his presidency this long.

  • Politically, GWB was right to stop golfing. It would look bad. However, he was just plain wrong to point it out as if it was some sort of real “sacrifice”.

    It’s still unbelievable to me that this man got elected to the Presidency. Twice.

  • Fahrenheit 911 didn’t come out until the summer of 2004, but that might have been about the time he recovered from the leg problem. In any case it’s just more evidence that he is far too guided by photo op appearances.

  • In addition to not referring to the party as a “brand”, it might also help your efforts to reconnect with ordinary people if you don’t refer to giving up golf as your sacrifice for the war effort.

  • Don’t forget he gave up sweets as well…(since revealed to have been also false).

  • How odd. This from a man who calls the mess in Iraq a semi-colon in history, and who has no trouble sleeping at night. This from a man who gets crotchety when he has to stay up past nine o’clock, or doesn’t get his two hours on the bicycle. This from a man who delights in telling fart jokes and punctuating them with real gas in front of his embarrassed aides.

    The only thing stranger than George Bush is the public, who gave this bizarre creature a second term when it had become abundantly clear that he was not up for the job.

  • So the President of the U.S. gives up golf to proclaim solidarity with the mothers of those who have lost children to his war.

    Perhaps I’d believe it more if he gave up golf in solidarity with the soldiers who may never play golf again because they’ve lost arms or legs or eyesight.

    But we can’t expect more from a man whose idea of supporting the troops is to urge people to go shopping.

  • Yes, because keeping the cover on your 9-iron is just like the sacrifice military families make when they lose a loved one in a war of choice.

    Pardon my language, but what a complete, unbelievable fucking asshole.

  • Well, that’s par for the course.

    Has he also given up playing at bombing raids or fighter planes or whatever it was on his bicycle?

  • Jeff @ 2

    It’s still unbelievable to me that this man got elected to the Presidency. Twice.. Once.

    There, better….

  • how ’bout he give up getting people killed? or would that be too big a sacrifice?

  • what it boils down to is it’s easier for the press to photo him on a golf course than on singletrack.

  • Oh the anguish he must feel when he watches his father get that put on TV.

    It can’t be too surprising that a moronic privileged superannuated frat/rich boy, despite being 62, thinks giving up a favorite Republican country club sport is an appropriate personal sacrifice or suitable statement of condolence to wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of those slaughtered and mutilated in his unending war crime.

    Let’s see. What would a genuine person, with real empathy and sympathy for the dead, the maimed and their families be? Oh, I know. Such a person might just attend an occasional funeral; make a few personal visits to a families; support more and better health care for survivors.

    Best of all, he could promise never to show his face in public again, and then take a vow of silence.

  • I saw that article late last night. I think it again shows how shallow Bush is. We aren’t in a War. We are in an occupation. In in which American’s are dying and for what?

  • Yeah, like he only “engaged in all-day pool volleyball parties with ambitious secretaries” twice a month during Vietnam, out of a sense of solidarity with the sacrifices being made by real Texans in the war.

    Goddamned most worthless excuse for a human being in the history of the species.

  • I’m struggling with whether Bush’s sacrifice is better or wrose than the Romney boys, who served their country in time of need by campaigning for Mittens.

  • This absolutely must become a campaign theme:

    Republicans say Barack Obama is elitist. So to show how much Republicans identify with working Americans, George Bush has decided that his sacrifice for the War in Iraq is to give up golf.

    “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

    In November, show the Republicans what you think of their “sacrifice”. Vote Democratic.

  • Kanopsis @13

    It’s still unbelievable to me that this man got elected selected to the Presidency. Twice.. Once.

    There, much better….

  • This sounds like Mitt’s sons showing patriotism by campaigning for their dad.

    Gee Boy George gave up golf. Such the sacrifice when soldiers gave up life and limb. How many days of this fool do we have left?

  • Maybe he is conserving titanium for the war effort.

    Can you imagine the spot he has put the real conservatives in, they either have to act like he isn’t a complete bafoon, which is a job in itself, or they have to break the Reagan motto of not speaking badly of another republican.

  • Has anyone noticed that many people speak in a similar, but entirely different language than most of us?
    To me, this sounds like the language of Commander Codpiece’s Base, Upper-Crust Republicanese. In that language, giving up golf is like kicking a crack addiction cold turkey.
    But, given the knee situation, it’s a lie. Wow, I’m surprised. Not.
    Calling this lump of protoplasm a piece of shit actually insults turds. Really, have turds ever caused so much death, destruction or misery as this…thing has?

  • Even now, Clinton is trying to shore up her support: “Hillary’s holding a meeting at her Washington D.C. home tonight for 30 or 40 top fundraisers, a Clinton backer says. And she’ll be hosting a group of superdelegates who support her at the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, NY Saturday, two sources said. ‘All of this is about reassuring her supporters,’ said a person who plans to attend one of the meetings.”

    In fact, Senator Clinton will not concede…ever.

    She plans on making her case to the supers, both publicly and privately, throughout the summer. She wants all the states to get their chance to vote. And then she’ll continue to “work as hard as she can” to get the supers to overturn the results of those votes.

    As far as Clinton is concerned, pledged delegate selections and super delegate commitments are irrelevant until the votes are cast at the end of August. So, to our detriment and hers, she won’t leave us alone until then.

    I’m sorry, but I cannot support putting a person on the ticket who is more interested in her own well-being than the well-being of those she seeks to represent.

  • This is the Bush equivalent to Lyndon Johnson admitting behind closed doors to friends that the war was hopeless while continuing the massive buildup of troops. This may be Bush’s way of saying that the war was a terrible mistake.

    Bush is going to heaven so he’ll have plenty of time to tell God, “Watch this Drive!”.

  • Here’s a short list of things I’ve sacrificed for the war effort.
    1. I no longer trim my finger nails while on conference calls. [Donna said something about it last time.]
    2. I only listen to American rock while driving my SUV.
    3. No Russian porn for, like, three weeks.
    4. You can have my V-neck sweaters [too itchy].
    5. I now answer the phone before the third ring.
    6. To bed by 10:00 sharp!
    7. Walk to mail box instead of ride golf cart.
    8. Store brand paper towels pretty much all the time.
    9. Growing mustache, sideburns.
    10. No more socks!
    11. Lance Armstrong can wear his own Goddamn bracelet.
    12. Sending Pottery Barn catalog to soldiers in Iraq who don’t get any mail.
    13. Thinking about inventing a car that runs on urine.
    14. Botox for eyebrows only.

  • Sacrifice for me after 9-11 was not having a job…and then having to drive 65 miles each way to go to one and literally drive my soul and car into the ground.
    Bush has never ever had to sacrifice anything in his life. Bush has given up nothing. Uncle Saud has been his Daddy WAR-Bucks.

  • Here’s the thing – if you’re a leader and you decide that it’s unseemly for someone of your position to be seen golfing while you prosecute a war, and that’s the end of it, good. Kudos to you. When you make a point to mention it publicly, It stops being an admirable, personal quality, and, instead, becomes proof to anyone with class that you have none.

    If I had to pick the worst character trait George Bush has, I’d sum it up by saying he has no class. It’s an affliction you see in him and others in the administration, from Rumsfeld’s interminable glibness, to Cheney wearing a puffy down jacket and ski cap to a memorial for the Holocaust, to Rice going shoe shopping while New Orleans drowned. It might be a function of the high opinion they seem to have of themselves that they’re just not interested in the feelings and opinions of others.

    When Bush says things like this, he really thinks it’s a big deal that he hasn’t golfed after 2003. Normal people would put this in perspective (it’s not a big deal), and most people who thought it was a big deal would still have the common sense not to say what they thought out loud. Bush and his cronies are obviously in a third category.

  • what Chris @34 said. amen!

    I would’ve guessed it was just after Fahrenheit 911;all those repeated clips of “..now, watch this drive..” that drove this.

    i could imagine, Karl Rove (or somesuch lackey) saying “…err, umm, Mr President, it really might not be a good idea to take up golfing so soon, now that
    your knee has only just healed some …”

    An ounce of good satire, is worth a pound of scandal.
    in politics, once they laugh at you, it’s over.

  • I’d be more impressed with his “sacrifices” if he had stopped brush cutting and bike riding, took a couple of courses in elocution and started reading books above grade two level.

    What an elitist, in a nouveau riche way, to say. Chris @ 34 is right: he’s low class all the way. In addition to being a sociopath.

  • The Onion. I marvel that headlines here are taking on a twinge of Onion irony. Life imitating art.

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