While, instead of simply reporting the news, the Associated Press spends its days looking for every which way it can find to attack George W. Bush, Governor Sarah Palin and any number of other conservatives or Republicans, it has a corresponding penchant to go easy on The One and his Democrat cohorts. Nothing is a better illustration of the difference between the AP’s treatment of the right and left than this one little story headlined “Obama can’t shake the bowling jokes.”

Yes, while the AP is putting snide remarks about Sarah Palin into every story in which she appears, Barack, on the other hand, gets pity from the AP over all those gosh darn meanies out there that can’t let him forget what a bad bowler he is. Oh, HOW can he continue to save us from ourselves if people won’t let this bowling thing go, huh?

KAILUA, Hawaii – President-elect Barack Obama thought he’d put the bowling jokes behind him. Not likely.

The AP goes on to “report” that, as he golfed, a woman ribbed Barack that his bowling game was not so good. And the AP is not amused.

The woman’s quip referred to Obama’s embarrassing bowling outing in Pennsylvania, when he knocked down only 37 pins — with the assist during two frames from an 8-year-old. It was an effort to connect with working-class voters, yet he lost Pennsylvania’s primary election to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I almost feel like we can expect this AP reporter to end up on YouTube, under a blanket and screaming “LEAVE BARACK ALONE!”

And that isn’t the only thing that the AP is feeling sorry for concerning Barack’s sporting misadventures.

Likewise, Obama has struggled with his golf game. He told reporters during his first round last week that he wasn’t that good; he asked other patrons for tips on his second. On Monday he joked that his final drive of the day went only 20 yards.

We have unrest in Israel, Islamofascists plotting to destroy us, a troublesome economy, and general uneasiness, and what is the AP all worried about? It is worried that Barack Obama is being so mistreated that people won’t let him forget that his bowling game is less than stellar and that his golf game is lacking.

This is as ridiculous as the AP’s important report about Barack’s lunch back on November 22.

One wonders why the Old Media aren’t more upset with Barack that he’s on vacation during these tense times when so many leaders (on the right) from the past — Eisenhower, both Bushes, Reagan — were attacked in the press for vacations they took? I guess Barack gets a pass on this, too?

But as the world crumbles, Barack golfs and takes jabs from folks in the public about his bowling game. Does the AP wonder why Barack is on vacation instead of home gearing up for the start of a very tumultuous presidency? Does the AP focus on the seriousness of the times? Guess not. The AP is worried about how jokes about Barack’s bad bowling game might upset his delicate feelings.

This is serious reporting.

(Photo credit: Associated Press)

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