Obama-Boehner golf summit: Who will win?
There鈥檚 a big golf match this weekend in Washington, if you haven鈥檛 heard. No, we don鈥檛 mean the US Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. We鈥檙e talking about the Golf Summit 鈥� the Saturday showdown between President Obama and John Boehner, the GOP speaker of the House.
They鈥檝e both been practicing. Who鈥檚 going to win?
Probably neither of them, if you鈥檙e talking about golf per se. Vice President Joe Biden and John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, will be filling out the foursome, and Mr. Biden may be the best player of them all. He鈥檚 No. 29 in the of Washington鈥檚 Top 150 golfers. Mr. Boehner is next, at No. 43. Mr. Obama lags, at 108.
But the match is about political gamesmanship as well, and that鈥檚 a more difficult endeavor to handicap. The only definitive comment we鈥檒l make on that is this: Mitt Romney will be the round鈥檚 political loser.
Here鈥檚 our reasoning. By agreeing to meet Boehner on the links, Obama appears open to discussion with his partisan opponents at a time when budget negotiations hang in the balance. A little stroll, a few bogeys, and some chat about the debt limit 鈥� sounds like an afternoon well spent, doesn鈥檛 it? OK, maybe not for you, but for the leader of what used to be called the free world.
Obama gets to appear both presidential and potentially bipartisan. That could be a winner as far as independent voters 鈥� who will be crucial in 2012 鈥� are concerned.
Mr. Romney is the Republican front-runner in the presidential race at the moment, so we鈥檒l have him stand for the whole GOP wannabe crowd. Anything that bolsters Obama鈥檚 image is going to lessen Romney鈥檚 chances of making the Oval Office his own.
Wait a minute: Isn鈥檛 Boehner playing here, too? And if that political calculus holds true for Obama, why wouldn鈥檛 a golf summit politically bolster the speaker, who happens to be a Republican?
It might, particularly if it is followed by a process of negotiation that produces a budget compromise before America鈥檚 finances are pushed to the brink. In the end, voters might see Obama and Boehner as working together for the US good.
But Boehner doing well, politically, does not necessarily equate with a boost in his party鈥檚 chances for taking back the White House. Voters are happy with divided government, particularly if they think it is making progress. They鈥檙e much more likely to toss out an incumbent if they believe the nation as a whole is a mess.
We鈥檙e probably reading too much into an episode of four grown men chasing a white ball around a greensward glistening with fertilizer, but that鈥檚 what we do here in D.C. As for Obama, one thing is clear: He better not . Ever since Dwight Eisenhower got skewered by the press for practicing putting while the Soviets launched Sputnik, presidents have been leery of appearing to like golf too much.
President George H.W. Bush played so fast it looked as if he thought the baying hordes of the media were after him. George W. always appeared to prefer activities that involved more sweat. Of recent US chief executives, perhaps only Bill Clinton looked like someone who was happy just to be out of the office in the open air.
Of Mr. Clinton鈥檚 skill, golf great Arnold Palmer said this the other day: 鈥淐linton can hit it. But you never know what Zip Code he鈥檚 going to hit it into.鈥�
