Subject: [big campaign] Fore More Years
From: "Brad Woodhouse" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 14:53:36 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/05/fore-more-years.html 

Political Punch

Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent
Jake Tapper

Fore More Years

May 14, 2008 2:37 PM

FROM GUEST-BLOGGER RICK KLEIN, OF ABC'S THE NOTE
<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105288&page=1> 

President Bush may have lined up a chip shot for some of his critics.

In an interview <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10314.html>
with Politico's Mike Allen, President Bush went into more detail than he
has previously about his decision to give up golf, in 2003.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the
commander in chief playing golf," the president said Tuesday. "I feel I
owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.
And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

Surely the president offered this detail with the best of intentions, to
show one small way in which he's chosen to change his behavior because
of the way it might be perceived, and not to equate the loss of American
lives with his loss of a game most associated with the prep-school set.

But suffice it to say that Bush critics have taken notice.
Representatives of several liberal groups contacted by ABC News said
they are mulling advertisements or other PR efforts highlighting the
comments.

The liberal group Americans United for Change
<http://americansunitedforchange.org/>  sent an e-mail to reporters
Wednesday with photos of the president hunting and fishing -- and
included a link to a video clip
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3p9y_OEAdc>  (made famous by
"Fahrenheit 9/11") of the president calling on all nations "to do
everything they can to stop these terrorist killers" -- and then telling
reporters to "watch this drive."

(That golf game, it should be noted, came before the Iraq war, when US
military efforts were limited to Afghanistan.)

"It does highlight how out of touch the president is," Brad Woodhouse, a
spokesman for Americans United, tells ABC. "You can react to something
like this with anger or ridicule -- either one works. We're leaning on
the sign of ridicule."

Leave the anger to VoteVets.org <http://votevets.org/> , a political
action committee comprised of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans.

"I would say that thousands of Americans have given up a lot more than
golf for this war," Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org and
a reserve Army captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said in an
interview. "For President Bush to imply that he stands in solidarity
with these families because he quit a game is an insult."

Friedman said his group is exploring Web advertising and other ways to
circulate the president's words on his sacrifice of his golf game -- and
here's guessing his won't be the last group to use it.

"We have to spread the word. We're trying to get it out there, because
it's really reprehensible," Friedman said. "This is a guy who has not
yet gone to a military funeral. It just shows how inhuman he is."

Think the president would like a mulligan?

-- Rick Klein

 

Brad Woodhouse, President

Americans United for Change

202-470-5858 

202-251-5669 (cell)

[email-masked]

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