President Obama Talks to Russian Media About His Golf Swing

It's not as bad as former President George W. Bush suddenly drawing a blank when he was asked during an April 2004 press conference to describe his biggest post-9/11 mistake ("You know, I just -- I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet..."), but it's more proof that world leaders, unlike most everybody else, have a skewed since of reality.

President Barack Obama is currently in Russia on a week-long diplomatic mission. And in his first interview with the Russian press he talked about ... his golf game.

... President Obama was asked, "what don't you like about yourself?"

The president responded, "I have been playing golf lately, and I don't like my golf swing."

Laughing, the president continued, "you probably don't have that much golf weather in Russia, but it's a game that I keep on thinking I should be good at, and somehow the ball goes this way and that way and never goes straight."

Bacon implored me to mention it, so here ya go: Obama must be the last person to realize that his golf swing isn't very good. (Here's the visual evidence for the skeptics.) Two months ago, Obama played his first round at Commander-in-Chief, and the chicken wing was present and accounted for. If the swing has gotten worse since ... well, god help us all.

According to Golf Digest, Obama was a 16-handicap last year but I that has to be a misprint. You don't need a textbook swing to score well, but by the looks of it, Obama can't average more than 200 yards off the tee, and that almost certainly includes a huge slice. But maybe long irons and putting are his strengths and he has no trouble breaking 90. (In which case, I will start implementing the chicken swing, too.)

On the other hand, Local Knowledge Blog's John Strege makes a good point: "Cut him some slack. Who isn't preoccupied with improving their golf swing, notwithstanding anything else that might be going in their lives?"

Just a shot in the dark here, but Dmitry Medvedev?