Warsaw Business Journal made a splash yesterday with its story on US President Obama deciding to go play a round of golf instead of attending the funeral of President Kaczyński and his wife on Sunday. The story, which was originally broken by The Washington Times, found its way onto a prominent spot on the conservative news aggregator “The Drudge Report” and consequentially lit up the blogosphere and conservative-leaning news sites. We were even quoted by FoxNews.com. (UPDATE: Fox News ran our headline on TV as well)
“Obama's Golf Game Draws Ire from Polish Press” read one headline, referencing our story. “The move sparked some anger at the Warsaw Business Post [sic] newspaper in Poland,” read a line in Canada's National Post.
For the record, the story wasn't written with any “ire” or “anger,” though we were certain it would draw some. Those of us on the editorial board admit to some disappointment at Obama's decision – it was obviously made without thought to how it would play in Poland, marking the second Poland-related faux pas he has made in his 15 months as president. The first was his terrible decision to announce the scrapping of George W Bush's missile shield deal with Poland on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's invasion of the country in 1939. At best the decision was insensitive. At worst it was blatant disregard.
Nevertheless, there has begun a stout defense of Mr Obama as well: “Let Obama play golf” reads the title of an opinion piece by The Telegraph's Harry Mount. “In defense of Obama's golfing adventures” is the headline of on op-ed by The Washington Examiner's Stephen G. Smith. All seem to make the argument that the president deserves some R&R – he is a hardworking guy, after all.
We take no issue with Obama relaxing – though with an election coming up and a Supreme Court battle on his hands, we wonder if his time couldn't have been better spent. We do, however, take issue with Obama's lip service to Poland as an important ally, then clearly disregarding that allies' sensitivities. Though the Polish Embassy in Washington DC was closed on Sunday – meaning he couldn't have gone to pay his respects by signing the book of condolences (as his Secretary of State and Vice President had) before he went out golfing – one wonders why he didn't choose to do so earlier in the week. That could have been on Friday for example, when he cancelled his trip due to the volcanic ash spewing from Iceland. *(UPDATE BELOW) An easier solution would have been to stop by a church and light a candle – a photo op that would have gained him enormous credibility here in Poland.
The blog American Thinker put it nicely:
“Some world leaders were also unable to attend, others found alternate means of travel. Barack, rather than visiting, paying respects, and signing the sympathy book the Polish Embassy in Washington DC, decided to solemnly commemorate the death of a world leader by shooting a few rounds of golf. Focused like a laser on the 18th hole, Barack did not allow his birdie to be distracted by how blatant irreverence might 'tee off' the world community.
French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also were unable to attend the funeral. However, Sarkozy did not express condolences while toweling off after a tennis match, nor did Chancellor Merkel commiserate from International Dance Week in Dresden.”
The writer concludes by mentioning that President Bush gave up golf, because it sent the wrong signal to be frolic king on the golf course while American soldiers were dying.
“Excuse me Mr. Bush, do you mean 'sends the wrong signal,' similar to the type of signal the leader of the free world sends by choosing to play golf while the president of Poland is laid to rest – that kind of wrong signal?”
What signal has Mr Obama sent to Poland?
Notes:
In our review of the reaction to this story, we noticed some terrible errors in the re-writes of our story and The Washington Times'. One of these was the mis-naming of Warsaw Business Journal as The Warsaw Business Post (as mentioned above). This mistake was repeated by an alarming number of news outlets. Do none of these journalists use Google?
More egregious, however, was the horrible misspelling of President Kaczyński's name by FoxNews.com, which cited our headline as "Obama Goes Golfing Instead of Attending Kachinsky's Funeral."
Leaving aside the style point that we don't capitalize every word of our headlines, as is American convention, our headline was: "Obama goes golfing instead of attending Kaczyńskis' funeral" -- that's with the apostrophe after the "s" - since after all it was also the funeral of Maria Kaczyńska, the president's wife. Together, it was the funeral of the Kaczynskis. This was missed by many outlets as well. (Incidentally, Polish skirts the issue of having two slightly differently spelled male and female last names with the collective Kaczyńscy.)
*Update:
While my quick check of the embassy's website had led me to believe it was closed on Sunday, the Ewa Błaszczynska - the Washington, DC-based author of our CEE policy watch blog - tells us that the Polish Embassy WAS INDEED OPEN ALL DAY SUNDAY. She knows, she was there personally. She writes:
"I wanted to let you know that the Polish Embassy in Washington DC was in fact open on Sunday. They opened it up so that the American-Polish Forum ... could host a LIVE viewing of the Kaczyński funeral. The embassy was open as early as 7:45 am EST and yours truly even organized a lovely buffet breakfast for everyone. We had about 40 plus people attend including embassy staff and other friends of Poland. Had President Obama been aware, he could have stopped by to catch a glimpse of the funeral, grab a bagel and coffee and even sign the book of condolences (which was still on display and available for signing) all before hitting the links. This was even more possible given that the Polish Embassy is conveniently located just a few blocks up from the White House."
So President Obama had no excuse for not finding the time to find some way to pay his respects. Thanks for the tip, Ewa!
