"I couldn't care less whether a President chops wood or plays Chopin in his free time."

Bill Fields weighs in on the president giving up golf to help grieving families with a common sense point and some strong quotes from an Iraq vet. First, the common sense:

I couldn't care less whether a President chops wood or plays Chopin in his free time. If he happens to enjoy golf, hail to the chief for that, multiple mulligans and all (Gerald Ford seems to have been the presidential exception in not utilizing breakfast balls). I want a president to have his eye on the ball and keep his head down when he is in the Oval Office. What he does when he is away from it is his business, although I would prefer that he has something deeper than the latest John Grisham best seller on his nightstand and that his vacations can be counted in days, not weeks.

I say Fields is offering common sense wisdom because I had just seen some of the reader comments over on the golf.com Press Tent blog. My favorite was posted by "rmadsen" who writes: 

I remarked to a friend several years ago that if I were invited to play Pebble Beach with Bill Clinton, that I'd have to decline. This is coming from a certified fanatic of the game. I hope all you sad people that are bashing President Bush are not really true fans of the game; because in my experience; people who truly understand the game tend to be conservative and honorable. Bush has made mistakes of course. I wish he could communicate better to an American society that unfortunately is made up of mostly juveniles who understand very little of what makes a country great and vote like they are choosing a prom queen. He also should have vetoed a lot more spending bills and used his position to try and reign in congress. But the biggest failures of our government lately have little to do with the position of president, be he a democrat or republican.

Now, I think most of those juveniles he refers to would not turn down a round at Pebble Beach with Bill Clinton. Talk about juvenile!