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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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 MAUREEN DOWD 
18

Obama Emerges From White (Frat) House

Now Dowd wants to play him at Scrabble

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(Newser) – Turns out Tom Friedman played golf with President Obama last month—and fellow New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd isn't ashamed to admit she felt "a twinge of envy." Dowd's happy that Obama finally invited a woman to join him on the links this weekend, after catching heat over all-male basketball games and the "frat-house atmosphere" of White House meetings. Caught up in the spectacle of our first black president, "it took quite a while for anyone to accuse Obama of being exclusionary."

Geraldine Ferraro used to complain about Walter Mondale's "smart-ass white boys," and Hillary Clinton lamented the "white boys" in her husband's White House—yet with Obama, the dynamic hasn't changed. "Obama regards himself as the change," Dowd writes, and didn't immediately grasp the importance of changing what was around him. But rather than golf, the columnist would rather take on the president in Scrabble: "I’m curious about what X and Z words the smarty-pants Y chief executive can come up with."

Melody Barnes, chief domestic policy adviser, and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson leave the White House Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 to play golf with President Obama.
Melody Barnes, chief domestic policy adviser, and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson leave the White House Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 to play golf with President Obama.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama follows through after teeing off on the seventh hole at the Mink Meadows Golf Club in Vineyard Haven, Mass., Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009.
President Barack Obama follows through after teeing off on the seventh hole at the Mink Meadows Golf Club in Vineyard Haven, Mass., Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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18 comments
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digitalbuddha
Oct 28, 09 8:09 AM CDT
NO TIME FOR GOLF! GET TO WORK! Reply
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+6
IN RESPONSE:
mainlander
Oct 28, 09 8:11 AM CDT
Because GWB was such a dedicated worker who never took time off for a bicycle ride or to "cut brush".
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-3
IN RESPONSE:
Rob
Oct 28, 09 8:31 AM CDT
@main That may be true about Bush but it is NOT an excuse for Obama.
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+5
IN RESPONSE:
dontlikeyou
Oct 28, 09 8:48 AM CDT
Where is the kooky left outrage about him playing golf? Obama has played golf more than GWB, yet all we heard was how lazy GWB was. Obama is lazy by this standard, but you leftist hypocrites don't say a word. No wonder the majority of Americans do not identify themselves as liberals.
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-4
IN RESPONSE:
Fondue
Oct 28, 09 9:06 AM CDT
Well, no one's beat Reagan so stop your bitching. Oh, seems I remember the 9/11 warnings went unheard during on of Bush's vacations.
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+2

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