Because someone got Dan Rathers fired and someone else got ACORN de-funded and it was so exciting, so gratifying, so self-justifying that they try endlessly to replicate the experience. 

And as much as I hate to say it, the President should never have mentioned skeet shooting in the first place, or made any effort towards saying “I’m like you and I share your concerns.”  Anything of this kind is seen by them as pandering and weakness.  He won his second term.  His attitude for the next 4 years should be a constant middle finger extended in their general direction.

I think he actually was answering a question (more or less) honestly:

The New Republic: “Have you ever fired a gun?”

President Obama: “Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time.”

New Republic: ”The whole family?”

Obama: “Not the girls, but oftentimes guests of mine go up there. And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake.”

— from an interview published Jan. 27, 2013

He’s careful to say “we do” and “guests of mine”. I don’t think he was trying to imply that he’s necessarily shooting all the time, but that he’s done it and has been around guns. I think he did better than Romney’s hunting of “small varmints”, anyway. But it is true that he could have just said “Sure,” and left it at that.  (You know, with today’s media, that’s when he’d get a follow-up question.)

They’re just mad he holds a gun better than Sarah Palin does.

If it’s good enough for Glenn Kessler…

UPDATE: As one might expect, there is a vast partisan divide on this, with some readers upset that we did not immediately change our ruling because the president released a photo, as we had requested in our original post. We try not to make snap judgements, but readers argued we had moved the goal posts. So we now have a photo, a news report quoting an anonymous that the president participated in a Marine guard competition and a news report quoting Obama that he has practiced with the Secret Service. The issue is settled, and we award the president a Geppetto Checkmark.

oooo a “Geppetto Checkmark”!  Might white of him.

@Vixen - I always figured that when she went wolf hunting in a helicopter, it was one of those military choppers with a minigun. So she never needed to handle a rifle until the photo-op, and prepared for that as well as she did for everything else.

Gawd the fRighties are so pathetic these days.  But I love Plouffe’s characterization of them as “skeet birthers”.  I mean, fercrisake how sad and irrelevant can they be?  Is this the nadir or is there farther to go?

I doubt he’s done skeet shooting more than once.  It would interfere with his golf.
As far as his supposed “profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations,” that is highly doubtful since he has no profound respect for any of the traditions of this country.

I mean, fercrisake how sad and irrelevant can they be?  Is this the nadir or is there farther to go?

”...he has no profound respect for any of the traditions of this country.”

Trolly troll is trolling.

As far as his supposed “profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations,” that is highly doubtful since he has no profound respect for any of the traditions of this country.

I’m sorry you feel that way. I understand he has a profound respect for the democratic process that got him elected to the presidency twice, as do the millions of people who helped him get into office. Popular vote being a cherished tradition round these parts, and all.

I doubt he’s done skeet shooting more than once.

Is this the nadir or is there farther to go?

There is no nadir.  There is always further to go, because their “concern” and their “hard questions” have nothing to do with establishing the truth about anything.

They’re a tribe of believers whose identity depends on constant reassurance that their beliefs are correct and similar reassurance that they’re still members of the tribe.  They really do believe that, as long as you believe something, it’s as true as anything else.  So the articles and blogs and commentaries about these “controversies” are intended, not to establish the truth about anything, but to give the tribe something everyone can feel something about and, thus, feel reassured that the tribe still exists.

The other night Bill Maher noted that the right wing publishes, and buys, essentially the same book month after month.  They ran a quick montage of covers of books by Coulter, Hannity, Rush, Dinesh, etc., etc.  There must have been at least a dozen.

Why is this so?  Because right wing politics is now no different from religion.  These believers need constant reassurance from their leaders and authorities that the world is as they believe it is, as opposed to the way it obviously really is outside their bubble of belief.  These people listen to Rush and read Coulter for the same reason they run to the Bible to confirm their feeling that Jeebus loves them in spite of the abundant objective evidence to the contrary.

There’s no nadir because there are no standards.  It’s like saying, “You just at dinner last night.  You want to eat again today?”

Here endeth the lesson.

I try not to say superficial shit like this, but John Nolte is a dumbass.  A yowling conspiracist and a “film critic” who hates movies.

I really don’t give a rat’s patoot if the Prez shoots skeet or not.  I will correct one thing, if you see smoke coming from a firearm using smokeless powder (which this certainly is) the gun is just that milisecond fired, it is not possibly lowered.  Physically impossible.

most people who shoot skeet use a shotgun shorter than that, I would - it certainly adds to the challenge

Obvious photoshop. C’mon sheeple!!1!

Chuck, it’s been suggested that what the President was actually doing in this photo was trap shooting not skeet. I didn’t know what the difference was until I heard this. You can bet the WH press corps didn’t know either.

Not to feed the troll, but there is no golf course (except probably a putting green) at Camp David. The WH is pretty quiet about the facilities, but you can see the satellite photos on Google maps.

Correcting myself; there is one green and two sandtraps visible on the satellite photo. The shooting range may double as a driving range. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ike or Nixon had put one in.

Hard to say which has the far-right’s panties more in a knot:

The idea of President Obama with a rifle. or;

The idea of a black man with a rifle.