Silly comparison of the day
Written by Jamison Foser
Published
In the middle of a column about (I guess; it's always hard to tell) how Barack Obama's presidency is just like George Bush's, Dana Milbank drops this comparison:
To observers of the presidency, the sports imagery may look familiar. Former president George W. “Watch This Drive” Bush was often ridiculed for playing the role of athletic supporter in chief. But Obama, while switching the focus from Texas to Chicago, has been no less fanatical. CBS News's Mark Knoller, the unofficial statistician of the White House press corps, counts 18 sports-related events for Obama in the first six months of his presidency -- not to mention a dozen golf outings and a few off-campus basketball games.
Bush's "Watch this drive" comment drew criticism because it immediately followed comments about terrorism, leading many to conclude that he wasn't taking the topic seriously enough.
Equating Barack Obama's events with championship sports teams -- common occurrences at the White House for years -- with Bush's “watch this drive” callousness is silly at best.