Now That's Hardball

Barack Obama is driving some of his detractors into foul territory.

You just get the impression that every little thing he does has them sputtering.

I first noticed this when the military freed an American captain by killing three Somali pirates and there was grumbling on the right that Obama hadn't moved fast enough.

I can certainly understand critics being turned off by some of the more gushing coverage: Obama picked brackets for the college playoffs! Obama's going on Leno! Obama ordered a hamburger!

But when they get exercised about the president of the United States throwing out the first pitch at the All-Star Game -- a tradition that dates to William Howard Taft in 1910 -- something has gone seriously awry.

It was not the best pitch ever thrown by a commander-in-chief. (Click on the link and check out the video.) The ball sailed high and came down just in front of the plate, barely reaching the catcher's mitt. Go ahead, poke fun at him. He's an athletic guy, but hoops, not baseball, is his sport.

But there has been an edge among some of those who complained about Bush Derangement Syndrome. Laura Ingraham went on for several minutes about the lame pitch, and some scattered boos, at one point jokingly admitting that "we're being jerks." And there was this Rachel Abrams post in the Weekly Standard:

"Did we really also have to listen to him blathering on with the moron twins, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, during the all-star game? . . . He may have thrown out the first pitch wearing a Chicago White Sox jacket ('My wife thinks I look cute in it'), but there was nothing in his cool aspect or his broadcast-booth blarney to suggest a true love for the game, like that of, say, our 43rd president. This guy should stick to golfing, or, better yet, to kicking a soccer ball around the White House lawn. It suits him: more Europeanish, less Americanish."

Gateway Pundit beaned the president with this headline:

"OBAMA BOOED IN ST. LOUIS! . . . And Throws a Sissy Pitch."

No More Mister Nice Blog mocked the mockery:

"This is still the right-wing formula: evidence of toughness or brawn or some other jockish virtue is the mark of a fine president, and is even more important than actually being good as president." And there were complaints that the Fox camera didn't show the pitch had reached the plate.