A meme making the rounds on social media today has a split photo of the president. On one side he is seated at a conference table, presumably in the White House. On the other, he is seated behind the wheel of a golf cart. The caption reads:
Most people take off a day of work to play golf. Obama takes a day off golf to work.
It is a humorous jab at a president with a rare passion for hitting the links. Or it would be humorous if it were not so close to the truth.
A pair of tweets will serve to exemplify. The first, by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, captures a frozen moment of Obama standing behind a podium addressing the barbaric and senseless murder of American journalist James Wright Foley at the hands of ISIS butchers:
President Obama on ISIS terrorists: “We will be vigilant and we will be relentless” pic.twitter.com/8Pe0WQ7dPo — Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) August 20, 2014
The time/date stamp on the tweet shows it was composed at 12:56 P.M. on Aug. 20.
The second tweet is by CBS reporter Major Garrett.
According to WH travel pool w/POTUS, the president arrived at Vineyard Golf Club at 1:05 p.m., following statement on #JamesFoley and #ISIS — Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) August 20, 2014
The time elapsed between the president’s painful acknowledgment that an innocent American was brutalized by terrorists that were reputedly on the run and his return to the links: 9 minutes.
(h/t Twitchy)
