Obama/Skeet Shooting. What exactly is the deal ?
Offline This has made the headlines of more than one Yahoo news front page. Perhaps I am missing something here, but is there a reason that there is seemingly much ado about how often that Obama skeet shoots ?
http://news.yahoo.com/amid-gun-control-debate-does-skeet-gate-matter-183438202.html
As Washington engages in a fierce debate over gun control, does it matter whether President Obama has personally ever shot a gun? Would it change things to learn that he'd fired a weapon a total of five times in his life? Or 50? Or 500?
We ask this, of course, because of the ongoing minicontroversy over Mr. Obama's statement in a recent interview with The New Republic that "we do skeet shooting all the time" at Camp David.
It may have seemed at the time like a casual, offhand remark – Obama certainly didn't claim he's a hunter or a real gun enthusiast (though he made clear he has great respect for those who are). But it was immediately challenged by many who smelled, if not an outright falsehood, then a likely exaggeration.
(Later in the article) : We've seen repeatedly, nothing causes politicians more trouble than when they are caught pandering to segments of the population by trying to appear to be something they're not. Remember when Mitt Romney talked about his love of shooting "varmints" during the 2012 campaign? Or when John Kerry went duck hunting in a borrowed camouflage jacket, with a borrowed shotgun, back in 2004? Both incidents probably wound up doing the candidates more harm than good.
Rest of the article can be found at the link. I am not sure that I really see where the skeet shooting/gun control issue tie together ?
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
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Politics being what it is the regular skeet shooting claim could easily just be political theater cooked up by Obama's handlers to project an image of him not being seen as too extreme on gun control. Who knows ? Regardless if it's true or not, it will probably score him some points among the "Fudds" of the gun owning community.
Perhaps it's also similar to when Bush Jr, was always being photographed clearing brush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Maybe Bush's people thought that being seen doing physical labor might make him not appear as a pampered, ultra-rich frat boy who was out of touch with the average American.
In closing, I remember when Texas, Governor Anne Richards ( D ) was all about showing what a big supporter of "sporting / hunting" firearms she was with her annual dove hunt photo-op. She made the mistake of being photographed with a gas-operated semi-auto shotgun ( Remington 1100 ) at the same time as her fellow Democrats were on their mission to demonize semi-autos.
From that point on she posed with a pump action shotgun. I doubt that was a coincidence.
Ah, I see.
Ordinary people would probably call it political crap.
THEY would probably call it, business as usual.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno