A story in the New York Times this morning reveals that even the White House isn’t sure how to explain President Obama’s decision to golf immediately after his press conference denouncing Islamic State terrorists for beheading American journalist James Foley.
In response to criticism of Obama’s decisions, White House aides only cited Obama’s earlier call with Foley’s family.
Jennifer Palmieri, the White House communications director, tried to point to Obama’s speech itself to dissuade critics.
But as the Times reports, “Privately, many Democrats shook their heads at what they considered a judgment error.”
James Manley, a former aide to both Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Harry Reid told the Times that “a lot of Democrats flinched” at Obama’s decision.
Even former Obama aides, such as David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor and Bill Burton who frequently use their freedom to defend Obama on Twitter, did not weigh in on the situation.
On MSNBC, only Joe Scarborough appeared defensive of Obama’s position, even though he admitted that he wasn’t sure he was necessarily defending the decision.
Other MSNBC anchors were willing to criticize Obama’s decision, such as Willie Geist.
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