On Monday, I wrote about how my respect level for President Obama as a baseball fan increased a tad with his refusal to do the wave. Like I said before, the wave is for fans who are bored and anyone who takes a stand against it is okay in my book. While I admitted I now think more highly of the current president as a fan, I’d be lying if I told you I thought he was a great athlete. As a matter of fact, I’ll even argue that George W. Bush — who’s 5 years older than Obama — is a more impressive overall athletic specimen.
To kick off the debate I’ve come up with a collection of videos of Obama and Bush participating in athletic activity. Let’s start with the sport Obama has a clear edge in — basketball. The current President can ball. The former president, not so much. Here’s a video of Barack Obama playing H-O-R-S-E followed by a video of George W. Bush shooting an air-ball to prove it:
No two ways around that; 1-0 Obama. From there, it gets a bit hairy for Barack. While neither appears to be a great golfer and Bush has even admitted to cheating a bit while playing, a recent video posted by Brooks at Sports by Brooks of Obama at the driving range is not exactly flattering if you’re the current president. Yes, Bush’s “watch this drive” moment when addressing the war on terror made people cringe and was irresponsible, but if you look at the clip he actually has a pretty decent swing. With that said, it’s time for round two. Here’s a video of Barack Obama hitting golf balls at the driving range followed by a video of George W. Bush teeing off:
Nothing graceful about the way Obama’s swinging that club. I’ll give him a pat on the back for replacing that massive divot he made, but his swing is just ugly. Bush, on the other hand, sounded like he made good contact and his follow through is very smooth. The point clearly goes to Bush here as I’m fairly confident he’s the better golfer. Score check: Obama 1 , Bush 1.
On to the tie-breaker. If you’re an Obama fan, I apologize because this isn’t going to be easy to watch. The third and final leg of our triathlon takes us to the baseball diamond. The winner of this event takes the competition, so let’s get to the videos. Here’s a video of Barack Obama throwing out the first pitch at a Nationals game followed by George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch at a Yankees game:
Need I say anything? Probably not, but I will anyways. Just a terrible showing by Obama here. You would think that someone who’s good at any sport or even slightly athletic would be able to come within three feet of home plate. Let’s just say if a batter had two strikes on them and decided to take the pitch Bush delivered, they’d be taking a seat on the bench.
Final Score: George W. Bush 2, Barack Obama 1.
If you think there’s more to look at here or you disagree with my assessment, I’m all ears. If you couldn’t care less, that’s perfectly fine too.
Sources:
Video: Barack Obama Hitting Golf Balls On Range [Sports by Brooks]
YouTube users leo1209, cmfall1, ArtistPlumpy, UpTakeVideo, and Associated Press.
