Obama needs a ... swing coach?

Few of us can imagine being president let alone Barack Obama. I feel for the guy. How does he tune out the endless carping, nonsense and outright falsehoods about his policies, strategies, thoughts, personality and even summer vacation reading habits? That on top of saving the world (whose insistent realities never cease). America, meanwhile, has seemingly crawled into an infantile ball as it wails, “My Lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly scratched.” How on earth does one deal with a nation that projects all of its angst onto you, a mere mortal?

But fear not. Tom Friedman has an answer: PLAY MORE GOLF. "Match-play golf is a great teacher. As any good golfer will tell you, the first rule of match play is this: Never play not to lose. ... Always play the course, always play to win and always assume your opponent will do well — will make that long putt — so you have to do better," writes the columnist. It's easy to imagine Obama, reclined in a beach chair in Martha's Vineyard, reading Freidman's piece. "Now why didn't I think of that?" Obama probably thought sardonically, slowly shaking his head. Oh -- that's the other cross any president must bear: Unending advice from pundit "wise men" on how to do your job even though they've never had your job. Talk about par for the course.

Slipping into full what-Obama-should-do mode, Friedman continues: "Obama is smart, decent and tough, with exactly the right instincts about where the country needs to go. He has accomplished a lot more than he’s gotten credit for — with an opposition dedicated to making him fail. But lately he is seriously off his game. He’s not Jimmy Carter. He’s Tiger Woods — a natural who’s lost his swing. He has so many different swing thoughts in his head, so many people whispering in his ear about what the polls say and how he needs to position himself to get re-elected, that he has lost all his natural instincts for the game. He needs to get back to basics."

Like hire a decent swing coach, perhaps? Look, Friedman is well-meaning. But even he trips and falls into the cult-of-the-president sandtrap. He ends his column with Hollywood advice from the golf-buddy movie Tin Cup: “Roy ... don’t try to be cool or smooth or whatever; just be honest and take a risk. And you know what, whatever happens, if you act from the heart, you can’t make a mistake.” It's all on Obama, Friedman implies. For only he can part the Red Sea and lead us to the Promised Land -- plus magically win the PGA Masters Tournament. To be sure, inspiring words and leadership from Obama can certainly help. But fundamentally, he is not the problem. We are. It's all too easy to wear Hamlet's "suits of woe" and put it all on "daddy" to make it all better. What America could really use from Mr. Obama is a swift kick in the arse.