Soldiers relocate Hawaii wedding so Obama can play golf

a reply to: Vasa Croe

I'm no fan of Obama, but this doesn't seem like it was his direct doing. More of a faux pas on the people who work for him setting up his events and what not.

With that being said, I really feel for the couple. I guess if you're going to be snuffed by anyone, it's best to be snuffed by the president! Ugh.

And I thought Obama was just in Hawaii looking for his birth certificate. Pretty poor showing by his entourage to relocate a wedding for a round of golf.

Whatever happened to "the buck stops here" his people screwed up it falls on the boss...republican, Democrat, libertarian, it doesn't matter.

originally posted by: Agent_USA_Supporter
a reply to: Vasa Croe



In the end Obama phoned the couples to apology.

OH That makes it all better.

Bad form on President part.

A golf course, and especially the tee box through the green, are for playing golf. In my opinion as a golfer, a course should not allow other activities in these areas. Host weddings outside of the playing areas. Obama or any other golfer should be allowed to play the course.

originally posted by: WarminIndy

originally posted by: LOSTinAMERICA
a reply to: WarminIndy

I already know he doesn't give a # about me. I stopped picking out his little faults. Why get mad or upset about something you knew was the case in the first place? There are bigger fish to fry. This has zero chance of doing anything constructive. That's all I'm saying. Grasping at straws just takes away from the real problems.

In 25 years, this couple may have a story for the grandkids, it will go something like this.....

Grandma: "Kiddies, when grandpa and I were getting married, President Obama made us move our wedding so he could play golf"

Grandkid: "You mean Obama, the worst president ever?"

Let's see how petty it would be when Obama's daughters get married and another president makes her move her wedding so he could play golf. Would Obama not make an issue of it? We shall see how petty it will be.

Or the grandkid can say something like this. Why did you get married on a golf course was golf that important to you? People are saying it was because of the view Hawaii is chock full of places like that.

Also did this couple get permission from the American people to get married on our golf course? It was taking place on the Marine base golf course which means it belongs to the American people.

OK. This is - for some reason - mystifying me.

All the haters on here - tell me how this is Obama's fault exactly?

Do you think the President of the United States of America personally vets every single item for every single location he visits while he is both on and off duty?

If you do, you need to wake up and join the real world.

Are you so shallow in your hate that you cannot understand that his diary is controlled by his staff, who handle all the details?

originally posted by: neformore
OK. This is - for some reason - mystifying me.

All the haters on here - tell me how this is Obama's fault exactly?

Do you think the President of the United States of America personally vets every single item for every single location he visits while he is both on and off duty?

If you do, you need to wake up and join the real world.

Are you so shallow in your hate that you cannot understand that his diary is controlled by his staff, who handle all the details?

I would say he needs to vet his staff a bit better then because they are the ones making him look bad for this. Ultimately it comes down to his office being the one that decided he would play golf that day on that course and likely figured everyone would rearrange their schedules to fit his.

It is really just the principle of it for me....someone thinking they are better than another so they push a very important day (which included booking way in advance and a LOT of planning) in a lot of people's lives off for someone to play a round of golf.....petty.

AS much as I dislike Obama, I can't see this as being his fault. He probably didn't even know about the wedding until after.

This is how things work:

President to chief of staff: I wanna play golf on Tuesday.

Chief of staff: Yessir.

Chief of staff to staffer in charge of planning these things: Boss wants to play golf on Tuesday.

Staffer in charge of planning these things: Yessir.

Staffer in charge of planning these things to lacky: Boss wants to play golf on Tuesday.

Lacky: Yessir

Lacky on the phone to scheduler at military golf course (remember, POTUS is their boss too): President wants to play gold of Tuesday.

Scheduler at golf course: Yessir. (click). (He's not going to tell the White house staffer, "sorry, we've already got a wedding scheduled on that day," he's just going to make it happen and he's not going to go into detail how he did so. He got an order and he worked it out.))

I doubt that the White House knew about the wedding until after it was brought up by someone else.

Now one could point out that this is entirely about a culture of an elected representative being treated like a king for 4 years, and I'd agree with that, but it really isn't directly Obama's fault nor is it unique to his administration. OTOH, Bush frequently took vacations at his ranch or Camp David and would often stay in the Camp David area to inconvenience people less and let his staff stay close to home for the holidays.

originally posted by: neformore
OK. This is - for some reason - mystifying me.

All the haters on here - tell me how this is Obama's fault exactly?

Do you think the President of the United States of America personally vets every single item for every single location he visits while he is both on and off duty?

If you do, you need to wake up and join the real world.

Are you so shallow in your hate that you cannot understand that his diary is controlled by his staff, who handle all the details?

I would have the same problem if George Bush did it.

It's not like they planned this after Obama landed there. If they had permission to be married on that spot, that means the people in charge knew about it already, it's not like they had a guerilla-style wedding. And this is a popular spot for weddings, this hasn't been the first wedding on that spot.

Here would be a more diplomatic way of handling the situation...

SS Agent : Sir, it appears there is a pre-scheduled wedding on the 16th hole, already reserved.
Obama : Then let's sit at the bar until they are done, then we can play on.
SS Agent: Yes, sir.

See, diplomacy. But they did invite him to the wedding, diplomacy.

The website for Koolau Golf Club

Koolau advertises wedding packages already. It's not like they were randomly out there on the golf course. They paid the golf course for the wedding, already. They booked it in advance. Did they get their money back?

a reply to: NavyDoc

While I am sure there is an entire division to handle the POTUS mail, someone knew about it...they got an invite to the wedding AND responded prior to the wedding.

I am sure nothing there works like a well oiled machine so the probability that the info was passed along is likely nil, and your scenario is the most likely case of what happened methinks.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
While I am sure there is an entire division to handle the POTUS mail, someone knew about it...they got an invite to the wedding AND responded prior to the wedding.

My wife and I invited the President to our wedding back in 2008 just to get the White House stationery. You get a response but it is a generic one from the mail room and not from the President.

originally posted by: WarminIndy

originally posted by: neformore
OK. This is - for some reason - mystifying me.

All the haters on here - tell me how this is Obama's fault exactly?

Do you think the President of the United States of America personally vets every single item for every single location he visits while he is both on and off duty?

If you do, you need to wake up and join the real world.

Are you so shallow in your hate that you cannot understand that his diary is controlled by his staff, who handle all the details?

I would have the same problem if George Bush did it.

It's not like they planned this after Obama landed there. If they had permission to be married on that spot, that means the people in charge knew about it already, it's not like they had a guerilla-style wedding. And this is a popular spot for weddings, this hasn't been the first wedding on that spot.

Here would be a more diplomatic way of handling the situation...

SS Agent : Sir, it appears there is a pre-scheduled wedding on the 16th hole, already reserved.
Obama : Then let's sit at the bar until they are done, then we can play on.
SS Agent: Yes, sir.

See, diplomacy. But they did invite him to the wedding, diplomacy.

The website for [www.koolaugolfclub.com... 60&__utmx=-&__utmz=130468560.1419951694.1.1.utmcsr=yahoo|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=%28not%20provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=199067375]Koo lau Golf Course[/url]

Koolau advertises wedding packages already. It's not like they were randomly out there on the golf course. They paid the golf course for the wedding, already. They booked it in advance. Did they get their money back?

That's a valid point but it demands on a leadership style that permits people to talk back and inform the boss that there may be something up, rather than saluting and running off to simply "make it happen." You see these sort of things in the military often.

Bad leadership: "Take that hill."
"But..."
"Do you understand English? Take the #ing hill!"
"Yessir."

Good leadership: "Take the hill."
"But sir, there is an NVA company in the valley waiting to flank us when we move on the hill."
"Good point. Take 3rd platoon around the side of the hill to distract the NVA and then we take the hill."
"Yessir."

a reply to: neformore

Right. Not to mention that the golf course owners, the SS, or both probably made the decision without him even knowing about it.

This topic is just more of that mountain-outta-molehill, ignorant-pile-on trend that is so infectious and stems from certain sites that love to rile up he masses. Heaven forbid they actually ever break or focus on a real story after crying wolf so many times.

So he opted to play golf instead of attend the wedding he was invited to by a soldier he probably addressed in his Christmas oration thanking him/them for their service. Why didn't he accept the invite, be popular then play his round of golf since he was already there? He would have been a "herooo"

originally posted by: StoutBroux

So he opted to play golf instead of attend the wedding he was invited to by a soldier he probably addressed in his Christmas oration thanking him/them for their service. Why didn't he accept the invite, be popular then play his round of golf since he was already there? He would have been a "herooo"

Maybe you should run POTUS PR. That would have been a great opportunity for him to save some face.

originally posted by: StoutBroux

So he opted to play golf instead of attend the wedding he was invited to by a soldier he probably addressed in his Christmas oration thanking him/them for their service. Why didn't he accept the invite, be popular then play his round of golf since he was already there? He would have been a "herooo"

Well yes, that's obvious. But then, it goes back to the president and what he considers his role. Reagan considered himself, believe it or not, a public servant and would never be in the Oval Office without a suit and tie out of respect for an office he was a merely temporary tenant of. Clinton thought he was king for the day and quite often was in the Oval Office without his pants.

How would Obama know there was a previous wedding booked for Tuesday?
Just wasn't in the cards for the couple, maybe the golf course will comp them like the airlines do?
If I were on that Virgin flight to Vegas that had to land on an air cushion instead of tires I'd expect some free miles.

From the OP:

The couple reportedly ended up moving to a lush site overlooking the 16th hole, which one of the wedding planners said was more secluded and prettier anyway.

The White House may not have even known about the wedding in advance.

And after Bloomberg asked the White House about the incident, Obama apparently tried to make it right.

McCarthy told Bloomberg the president called the bride to apologize and congratulate them. "Made their day," she said.

A source familiar with the incident confirmed the phone call to Fox News.

If Fox isn't castigating him for this it is obviously a nonissue.

An AirAsia flight is still missing (though debris has been found).

Putin is not so subtly threatening the U.S.

There's a lot of news to report on that's far more important than a logistical faux pas made by Obama's handlers.

Yet this grabs headlines, and why....?