Obama calls A-Rod news 'depressing'
Everybody's got an opinion about A-Rod. Even the president.
President Barack Obama, who stuck mostly to the economy and stimulus plan during his first primetime press conference tonight, took a detour to answer a question about Alex Rodriguez's admission that he took performance enhancing drugs.
"It's depressing news on top of what has been a flurry of depressing items when it comes to Major League Baseball," Obama said when probed about the Yankee slugger by Washington Post reporter Michael Fletcher. "It tarnishes an entire era, to some degree."
Obama continued to say that the usage of performance enhancing drugs was a shame, because some baseball players no doubt played it clean. He also said it sent a bad message to children.
The president did, however, end on a hopeful note by saying he thought Major League Baseball was finally taking performance enhancing drugs seriously.
"Our kids hopefully are watching and saying, you know what, there are no shortcuts. That when you try to take shortcuts you may end up tarnishing your entire career," Obama said.
Despite Obama's comments tonight, he's unlikely to make peformance enhancing drugs a priority, if his past statements are any indication. In an October 2008 interview on the ESPN Radio program "Mike & Mike in the Morning" Obama said that "congressional hearings around steroid use is not probably the best use of congressional time."
Obama is hardly the first politician to criticize performance enhancing drugs in professional baseball. His predecessor, George W. Bush, called for an end to steroid use in his 2004 State of the Union address, saying:
"The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now."
Senator John McCain, Obama's Republican challenger for the White House, took an aggressive stance against performance enhancing drugs in baseball, even threatening legislation in 2004 if the sport did not adopt stricter drug testing requirements.
About Political Intelligence
Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. |
