Obama #39;s Cuba Opening Hits Early Obstacles, Faces Struggle With Congress: World News
Obama #39;s Cuba Opening Hits Early Obstacles, Faces Struggle With Congress. WASHINGTON: Only two-and-a-half weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a historic prisoner exchange ...
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Obama's Cuba Opening Hits Early Obstacles, Faces Struggle With Congress: World News - Video
Republicans Look to Challenge Obama on Energy, Cuba, Immigration
Republicans take full control of the Congress this week with an agenda of trying to force approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and push back on President Barack Obama #39;s sweeping policy...
By: WochitGeneralNews
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Republicans Look to Challenge Obama on Energy, Cuba, Immigration - Video
GOPer Says The Worst Thing A Republican Can Say About Obama
"Retiring Sen. Tom Coburn often gave Barack Obama fits on Capitol Hill, but he #39;s waxing sentimental about his personal friendship with the president on his way out the door. I just...
By: Caker Alerse
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GOPer Says The Worst Thing A Republican Can Say About Obama - Video
Gary Cameron/Reuters President Obama, playing in Hawaii last week, received national attention for his game in October when Michael Jordan, asked about his ideal foursome, said it would not include Mr. Obama because hes a hack, man.
HONOLULU President Obamas drives were consistently short. It often took him one shot too many to get his ball on the green. And when he finally took out his putter, he struggled with his touch.
He got around the golf course the way my uncle used to, said one golfer, describing the round that he played with the president a few years ago. He didnt have a picture-perfect swing.
Six years into his presidency, there seems to be almost nothing the nation does not know about Mr. Obama, ranging from his views on the use of drones to target terrorists to how his daughters have less interest in hanging out with him as they become teenagers.
But little is known about the state of his game and what he is like on the golf course, where he has spent roughly 1,000 hours playing 214 rounds since he was elected in 2008, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS correspondent who has kept track of the presidents schedule.
Unlike President Bill Clinton, who would have his press secretary announce his best scores, the White House reveals only when and with whom Mr. Obama plays, and officials there declined to comment for this article. The news media is only occasionally allowed to see him with a club in his hands. During one of the presidents rounds on his vacation in Hawaii over the past two weeks, photographers were invited to watch as Mr. Obama and the prime minister of Malaysia three-putted the 18th green.
Few golfers who have played with Mr. Obama have spoken publicly about his game, but interviews with three people who have played with him, hints he has dropped, and videos of his left-handed swing analyzed by golf professionals begin to provide a portrait of his demeanor and skill.
He needles you in the best sense of the word, said one of the three golfers who have played with him, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified as criticizing the president, and because he hoped to be asked to play with him again. He makes a bad shot, and he makes fun of himself. You make a bad shot, and he makes a joke with you. He just seems happy to be out there, so the poor play doesnt bother him.
Although Mr. Clinton routinely gave himself presidential pardons for mulligans and gimmes, Mr. Obama is known as a stickler for the rules, the golfers who have played with him said.
Mr. Obama counts all of his strokes and does not like to talk about politics. He has played for money. And, no, he does not make the Secret Service look for his errant shots. (They are pretty far back, one player said. They give him his space.)
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Obama Is the Nations Private Golfer in Chief
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Casting aside some of his past wariness on the issue, President Barack Obama has spoken more bluntly about race in the wake of a group of police killings of African-American men.
In interviews and speeches the last several weeks, after grand juries declined to indict police officers in Ferguson or Staten Island for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the president has invoked the word "racism" a term he has used sparingly in the past when describing conditions in America today to describe the challenges blacks and other minorities face.
He has described racial discrimination as "embedded deeply in society."
And Obama, who in a 2012 interview told the magazine Black Enterprise "I'm not the president of Black America," is now embracing the role of guiding the country in a public debate about how minorities and the police interact. He told Fusion in an interview "nobody's going to be pushing harder than me" on these highly-charged issues.
"The president has essentially changed his racial rhetoric," said Paul Butler, a Georgetown Law professor and civil rights expert. "It has evolved from cultural critiques of African-Americans to his actually saying the word 'racism.'"
Butler, who has criticized Obama's racial policies in the past, added, "I give the president credit for this evolution. I think he understands that recent events illustrate the inadequacy of his signature racial justice initiative 'My Brother's Keeper.' The problem isn't so much Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner needing to pull up their pants as it is systemic discrimination in criminal justice and other arenas."
Some conservatives have criticized Obama's comments, mostly notably former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said in a recent FOX News interview, "We've had four months of propaganda, starting with the president, that everybody should hate the police."
Several of the president's remarks came before the shooting deaths of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, at the hands of a killer who suggested he was acting in retaliation for the deaths of Garner and Brown. In a statement after those shootings, Obama emphasized "his profound respect and gratitude for all law enforcement officers who serve and protect our communities, risking their own safety for ours everyday."
Some African-Americans worry that Obama's focus on changing police interactions with blacks is too narrow and potentially ineffective. And they argue that the recent comments by both the president and the First Lady on their personal experiences with racial profiling, such as Obama being mistaken for a valet in his years before being elected president, aren't representative of the much more dire situations many minorities face.
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Obama Speaks Bluntly About Race In Wake of Police Shootings