President Barack Obama played his first round of golf of the year on Sunday, a foursome with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and White House staffers Eugene Kang and Marvin Nicholson,
The Hill reports.
Republicans have repeatedly ripped Obama for his frequent golf games in the past. It represents an insult to Americans hurt by the financial crisis, they say.
In the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney was particularly critical of the president for hitting the links during a Hawaiian Christmas vacation. “We’re out in the cold and the rain and the wind, because we care about America. He just finished his 90th round of golf,” Romney said at a campaign event.
In December, the Romney campaign launched fortyfore.com a web site to tabulate the president’s golf activities. The site now states that Obama has played 1,656 holes of golf — the equivalent of 92 18-hole rounds — since taking office in 2009.
The site requests $18 donations and says, “It's time to have a president whose idea of being ‘hands on’ doesn't mean getting a better grip on the golf club.”
At the height of the debt ceiling crisis last summer, Obama and vice-president Joe Biden used their love of the game for a "golf summit" with House Speaker John Boehner and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
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