I may be in the wilds — the glorious wilds — of Portugal, cruising with National Review. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a little Net surfing now and then. I have just seen that Drudge is circulating an article from the New York Post: here. It relates a nugget from Zev Chafets’s new book, Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One. The nugget is this: Zev had the idea that Rush should play a round of golf with President Obama. He said to Rush, How ’bout it? Would it be all right if I contacted the White House to suggest this? Rush said, Well, it’ll be a cold day in hell when Obama agrees, but go right ahead. Be my guest. So, Chafets contacted the White House, through a high-level Democrat he knows. And “a day or two later” — I’m now quoting from the book — the Democrat “got back to me with the answer: ‘Limbaugh can play with himself.’”
Zev Chafets was well ahead of me. He had his golf idea in the middle of ’09, I believe. Last January, I wrote a little essay for NR on Obama and golf (here). Toward the end, it included this:
On the golf course, as I have indicated, the rest of the world can sort of melt away. Also, a camaraderie, or brotherhood, can develop. The legendary teacher Harvey Penick once wrote a book with a memorable title: “And If You Play Golf, You’re My Friend.” I imagine that President Obama and Rush Limbaugh would enjoy a round of golf together. I’d like to make a third! And maybe the president could suggest a left-leaning fourth, so that our group is philosophically even? (Incidentally, Obama is a lefty on the golf course, same as he is off — he plays left-handed, I mean.)
Just maybe, an Obama-Limbaugh round of golf would be good for the country — national unity and all. In any case, I will be reviewing the Chafets book in the next issue of NR. Sneak preview: It’s a very good book, about a very interesting and consequential life.