Double Bogey: Obama, Boehner Tee Off At Golf Summit

President Barack Obama, left, plays golf at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C., April 23, 2010, while former House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, right, putts on the 6th green during the Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am part of the AT&T National on July 1, 2009.


The world's top golfers are hitting the links in Washington this weekend at the U.S. Open, but the real power players will be on a different course in the nation's capital. On Saturday, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner will put aside their partisan differences and face off on the green instead.After weeks of tense negotiations on Capitol Hill have yielded little progress on raising the debt ceiling, expectations for the so-called "Deficit Open" are running high. But don't expect a deal to be made during the much-anticipated game."I think I can say with great confidence that they will not wrap up the 18th hole and come out and say that we have a deal," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters this week.The White House is playing up the event as social, but doesn't deny that it could have political implications."I think that for the broader purpose of the work that needs to be done in a bipartisan way in Washington, this social occasion is a good thing," Carney said, "because ... spending a number of hours together in that kind of environment, I think, can only help improve the chances of bipartisan cooperation. It certainly can't hurt it, unless someone wins really big."