By Kevin Foley
In golf, it's called sandbagging. You deliberately manipulate your handicap upwards. When it comes time to bet, your unsuspecting opponent gives you shots based on his lower handicap. You blow him away and collect the Nassau.
Thus, it was instructive to watch Barack Obama play golf with John Boehner because you knew, sooner or later, the wily old GOP pol would find a way to sandbag the newbie prez.
There they were a month ago, famously on the golf course, just a couple of high octane swells working out a debt limit deal.
Boehner and Obama after a round of golf June 18. Photo: White House |
When the match was over, no doubt Obama retired to the White House confident Boehner was a man of honor who would sort it all out on his side of the aisle. Sure, the speaker would huff and puff on Fox News, but in the end, a fair deal would be struck.
So imagine the look on the faces of the president and Harry Reid, his metaphorical caddy, as the president metaphorically watched the speaker drop in putt after putt, winning hole after hole.
Suddenly, Obama was left on the metaphorical 18th green with the sinking feeling that he wouldn't be able to cover his bet.
Meantime, Boehner, looking like the fat cat that swallowed the birdie, played his role in a bizarre Kabuki performance last week, pretending to cajole House Tea Party freshmen into a compromise when meeting Obama half way was the last thing on the speaker's agenda.
Boehner and his own caddy, Eric Cantor, must have been hootin' and hollerin' over Obama's childlike naiveté when they hit the 19th hole. The Democrats got next to nothing but hard line conservatives took a first big step toward their long-cherished goal of dismantling Social Security, Medicare and other social programs.
Not surprisingly, FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe was taking a victory lap Monday on the talk shows taking credit for the deal. This is the guy with the carefully manicured side whiskers who purports to lead the “spontaneous,” “grass roots” Tea Party, which in reality is a Frankenstein funded by the billionaire Koch brothers' and chaired by their own dependable caddy, former Texas congressman and Tom Delay henchman Dick Armey.
Speaking of sandbagging, Armey now wears a ten gallon hat on that 11 gallon head of his to convey to the good folks in flyover country he's just one of them and not really a hard boiled inside-the-beltway cynic out to cash in by doing the bidding of the nation's most powerful and wealthy citizens.
America is falling for the con. Take a look at the rubes who show up at Tea Party rallies and you'll see a bunch of graying baby boomers who now or will soon depend on Social Security and Medicare, or know a family member or close friend who already does.
Yet they're supporting the very people who want to take it all away.
It's a testament to the communications skills and/or duplicity of FreedomWorks and other such outfits when they can get large numbers of the electorate to vote against their own best interests. All Kibbe has to do is tap those rich veins of prejudice, fear, anger, and ignorance. As long as you're prepared to be completely dishonest as FreedomWorks, it's easy to sandbag hapless voters.
Sandbagging is a big no-no at many golf clubs, where quaint virtues like honor and trust remain in vogue. Cheat and you quickly become a pariah. In Washington, there appears to be no penalty for sandbagging your opponent. In fact, conservatives have made it an art form.
*
* *
Kevin
Foley is president of KEF
Media Associates, an Atlanta-based producer and distributor
of sponsored news content to television and radio media. |