Does Obama’s Golf Game Insult the Polish People?

“Barack Obama Insults Poland” — this was the resentful conclusion of American political commentator Niles Gardiner in the British newspaper The Telegraph. It turns out that it is possible to insult the Polish people by playing sports on a day off from work.

Joseph Curl, a correspondent for the Washington Times, first wrote on Sunday that Obama headed to the Andrews Air Force Base near Washington to play 18 holes of golf while Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s funeral was taking place in Krakow in southern Poland.

Indignantly, Curl remarked that it was the 32nd time Obama had played golf since taking office. Meanwhile, George Bush played just 24 times during his eight years in office, and in 2008 he gave up golf entirely in order to show “solidarity” with the families of soldiers fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gardiner goes even further and writes that since the decision about the missile shield, this is “a second full-blown slap in the face for a key U.S. partner, whose soldiers are currently laying their lives on the line alongside their American allies on the battlefields of Afghanistan.”

“It is hard to think of anything more insulting to the Polish people on the day they mourned the loss not only of their president but much of their political and military leadership, for the president of the United States to be enjoying a round of golf after canceling plans to attend the funeral,” writes Gardiner. The Polish media is outraged and certainly things will only get worse, because tabloids and anti-American followers will surely “smell blood.”

“This change [not attending the funeral] gave Obama new opportunities. The president of the United States spent the chilly but sunny Sunday on the golf course. It is important to note, as well, that since the catastrophe on April 10th, Barack Obama has neither visited the Polish Embassy in Washington nor signed the condolence book,” relates the Polish news site RMF24.pl. Even my own newspaper’s website, Wyborcza.pl, has desperately asked, “What has happened with America?”

As one can see, even the head of the mightiest country in the world can not escape the fury of the Poles’ offended pride.

The truth is that the journey was supposed to last for one day — Obama’s return to Washington was scheduled for midnight Eastern standard time. The White House administration called off his public schedule.

The American president works seven days a week. Indeed, I do not know any person so busy who would not find a break in his daily schedule just to spend a few moments out in the fresh air (caution: irony!). The president spent part of the day with his daughters, as well. Let us hope that he used the opportunity to tell them about the Katyn massacre (caution: irony!).

Obama enjoys playing golf. I agree with Mark Twain who said that golf is a good walk spoiled. But I am not angry with Obama.

Just as I was not angry with Bill Clinton, who spent one evening during a trip to visit the poor and hungry in Africa listening to music, dancing and smoking cigars with his friends.

Or with George Bush, who preferred to spend two hours playing poker with friendly reporters instead of laying wreaths on memorials while visiting Warsaw in 2001.

And I do hope that none of my readers will feel offended when I admit that on one evening of Poland’s nine day long national mourning I watched “Blazing Saddles” from the beautiful new Mel Brooks Blu-ray collection.

Because there is one thing I share with Obama, Clinton and Bush — I am just a human being.