One of the more ridiculous stories this weekend was the piece from The New York Times - which also made it into the Post-Gazette - asking the all-important question: "A Man's World at the White House?"
It began with another provocative question: "Does the White House feel like a frat house?"
I believe the answer to both these testosterone-loaded questions is: Not if Michelle has anything to do with it.
But where did this come from? Apparently President Obama committed the cardinal error of hosting a high-level basketball game with no women players and liberal bloggers and others with time on their hands got on his case.
On to this very thin reed of controversy, the Times reporter added other items to the indictment: The president didn't want to get a "girlie dog" and the young men in the White House call each other "dude." Oh the horror!
So absurd was the story's premise that I began to wonder whether liberals had finally gotten smart and were trying some political jujitsu on the conservatives, who are always going on about how they are better men than liberals are, Gunga Din.
In my mind's eye, I conjured up the planning session of liberal spin doctors who though this one up: "I know, let's try planting a story in The Times that portrays Barack as a regular guy who likes sports and keeps the gals in their place. By manning up the president, we will unman his critics. All the regular guys disposed to hate him will suddenly say to themselves, ‘Hey, he may be a commie Muslim but he's OK by me!' "
Yes, this is the one criticism sure to do the president some good in Neanderthal circles.
Alas, my theory was way too clever. Obama has again compromised in order to pull defeat from the jaws of victory.
This just in today:
Yes, she can: Obama's golfers a men's club no more
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House scored a stroke for gender equality in sports on Sunday.
President Barack Obama's chief domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, became the first woman to play in the president's golf foursome. She joined the president, Marvin Nicholson, the White House trip director, and Dr. Eric Whitaker, the executive vice president at the University of Chicago Medical Center, for a round on the Army's Fort Belvoir golf course.
Obama has been criticized for playing basketball with men and no women, most recently in Sunday's New York Times.
White House deputy press secretary William Burton confirmed the first. "He golfed with women on the campaign trail but not until Melody this year," Burton said.
Posted
Oct 26 2009, 03:37 PM
by
Reg Henry