President Obama used an interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons on Wednesday to take an indirect shot at one predecessor and praise another — but not in the order that one might expect.
The indirect shot was directed at former President Bill Clinton. The subject was golf, a sport Clinton was probably as famous for cheating as he was for playing. “I am very proud of the fact I do not cheat when I’m playing golf,” Obama told Simmons. “Anybody who plays with me, they’ll say I count my strokes. I count my strokes. I don’t — I’m not getting five-foot gimme putts.”
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Said Simmons: “I guess you have to play it that way because then people could be, “I played with Obama” —
“And he cheated,” said Obama, finishing the thought.
Obama did not mention Clinton by name, but the former president was famous for taking mulligans and, yes, five-foot gimme putts.
As for the other presidential predecessor, former President George W. Bush’s name came up when Obama discussed the difficulty of throwing the first pitch at nationally-televised professional baseball games. Obama said it is difficult to throw while wearing the bulletproof vest that the Secret Service requires, and he recalled the time Bush threw the first pitch during the World Series held in New York shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“[The vest] is a little bulky,” Obama said. “I give credit — when I think about George Bush and the pitch he threw at 9/11. Unbelievable pitch.”
“Right down the middle,” Simmons said.
“Right down the middle,” Obama continued. “And huge credit for that. I give that guy a lot of props for that one.”
Simmons responded: “And I think [Derek] Jeter said to him before the game, ‘Don’t screw this up,’ or something like that.”
“That’s exactly what he said,” Obama answered. “He saw him behind the bullpen and said, ‘Don’t screw it up.’ And he didn’t.”
Obama, of course, has not always had such success with his performance on the mound.
