Only last week, the socialist press was fawning over Obama's healthcare plan and Brian Williams was sleeping in Obama's bed. But now the backlash is winding up, and people are starting to notice that Barack Obama plays golf.

In the New York Times' report on the House's passage of a climate change bill, the fact that Obama delayed a golf game to gather reporters in the Oval Office rated fifth-paragraph placement:

Mr. Obama, hoping to build momentum in the Senate after the narrow victory in the House, delayed the start of a Sunday golf game to speak to a small group of reporters in the Oval Office.

Of course everybody knows that "the president plays golf" is shorthand for "the president is a lazy, distant, out-of-touch plutocrat who's got nothing better to do while our country burns down than indulge in a rush man's pasttime," so when the Times works Obama's golf game into a story that high up, we know that something's afoot.

Indeed, Newsweek's Howard Fineman senses that "things are getting a little testy and are about to get more so" in the White House press corps. Why? "[T]he problem is that they are too cute by half. They assume they can manipulate, manage and guide the media flawlessly."

Fineman happily acknowledges that Obama's press shop hasn't been "stonewalling or lying about anything" (except for Bo's diet). It's just that they are insufficiently cowed by the reporters who cover them, apparently. Fineman doesn't really object to the prearranged stagecraft of the Huffington Posts' Nico Pitney's question at last week's press conference so much as the "cheesy"—read: unapologetically self-confident—way in which it was done. In other words, if they'd been a little more sheepish and respectful about the whole thing, no one would really have minded.

But they weren't, and Obama will probably continue to let bloggers ask him questions, and might even continue to do so in a way that reflects well on him. So there's testiness. And that testiness first manifests itself in little asides about golf.

Or in Politico stories with headlines like, "Obama golfs fourth week straight."

We hope Obama is just killing time until his White House basketball court is finished, because, given the optics, he really shouldn't be out on the links so much. And America loves Barack Obama playing basketball. If he were to ever say, "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now, watch this lay-up," he'd be guaranteed re-election.