Opinion Boys will be boys
Is Obama finally willing to let women in on the games?
I felt a twinge of envy when I heard that my pal Tom Friedman had played golf with the president for five hours one September Sunday. Tom learned a lot about Barack Obamas positions on weighty issues and sporty ones. (This president doesnt cheat and he does expect bets to be paid off.) My natural impulse was to shrug it off. Men have always craved private realms the golf club,mens club,garage,workshop,shed; a place to get away from the chatter and clatter of women and kids.
Gordon Thorburn,the British author of the book Men and Sheds,explained that the word shed derived from the Anglo-Saxon scead, or shade. It was,in a metaphorical sense,obscure,an intellectual pantry or spiritual home where a man could reflect and dawdle with tools and toys. But I dont kid myself that the presidential playing fields are merely about play. After Toms golf outing,Politico ran the headline: Friedman jumps to the front of the influence list.
Like other bosses,presidents surround themselves with people who make them comfortable. Poppy Bush liked racy humor,but was too gentlemanly to use it with women. So male advisers bonded with him by telling dirty jokes.
Obama likes to play sports,watch sports and talk sports. So the Obama aides who can do that,like Robert Gibbs,have a deeper personal connection with the president than someone like Rahm Emanuel,the former ballet dancer who prefers yoga to golf. Just as some men cant ingratiate themselves through sports,some women can. Condi Rice drew close to W. nudging away Cheney by working out with him and talking football.
As long as Ive covered politics,there were always women running up against The Boys. In 1984,Geraldine Ferraro complained about the smart-ass white boys from Walter Mondales campaign who tried to boss her around. As first lady,Hillary Clinton had to deal with Bills coterie of cocky white boys.It was a bit surprising that the same dynamic recurred with the first black president. But it is the very enormity of the change Obama represents that makes him cautious at times about more change. Because Obama regards himself as the change,he didnt immediately see the need to alter what his aide Anita Dunn calls the optics. His race also gives him cover; it took quite a while for anyone to accuse Obama of being exclusionary. After stories about the frat-house atmosphere in the spheres of economics and national security,and snipes about an all-male basketball pickup game at the White House with cabinet secretaries and congressmen,the president took Melody Barnes,his chief domestic policy adviser,golfing on Sunday. I wanted women to still hold their heads up so I didnt want to shoot triple bogies every hole, said Barnes,who was hailed by the press for smashing the grass ceiling.
Just as the hoops-playing president is getting knocked for being too traditionally male,the hula-hooping Michelle is getting knocked for being too traditionally female. Shes mostly played it safe, Allison Samuels writes in Newsweek,dabbling in traditional East Wing issues much like the first ladies before her without yet gaining much traction on any particular front. The First Couple is trying to let America digest the huge change that they signify. They know that Fox News is always ready to pounce with that radical label.
Besides,if Obama starts using a quota system for recreation,it will give fuel to the Republican campaign to paint him as a hand-wringing,Mom-jeans-wearing girly-boy. Churlish Cheney charged the president with dithering on Afghanistan and nerdy potential 2012 rival Tim Pawlenty,the Terror from Minnesota,accused Obama of projecting potential weakness on national security.
Since the president is finally willing to let women in on the games,I offered up my own challenge: Scrabble. Im curious about what X and Z words the smarty-pants Y chief executive can come up with.
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