August tends to be the “cruelest” month for President Obama – especially considering his approval ratings, according to National Public Radio.

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“It seems there is a right time and a wrong time to play golf,” Robert Siegel, host of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” said on Friday’s show. “At least there are a lot of opinions about that when the person swinging the clubs is the president of the United States.”

President Obama has come under withering criticism for hitting the links after commenting on U.S. journalist James Foley’s beheading at the hands of Islamic terrorists, and for staying there despite the increasingly chaotic scene unfolding in Ferguson, Mo., after a police officer shot and killed a black teenager.

NPR’s White House correspondent, Scott Horsley, said even America’s allies are making hay about Obama’s tone-deaf affinity for golf.

“How bad is it when even the French are criticizing you for taking too much time off?” Horsley said. “French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was one of many who took President Obama to task this week for playing golf in the wake of journalist Jim Foley’s murder.”

White House spokesman Eric Schultz recently responded to the criticism, saying the president has been “deeply engaged on issues both domestic and abroad” during his two-week family vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

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But America doesn’t appear to be buying it, particularly during the dog days of summer. August, in fact, has always been bad for Obama, Horsley said. “In 2009, there were angry protests over the health care bill,” he said. “2010 was supposed to be Recovery Summer … and in August of 2011, brinkmanship over the budget knocked a hole in the U.S. credit rating.”

Frank Newport, a Gallup pollster, said that the August approval ratings were the worst for each of the first five years of Obama’s presidency, according to NPR.

“If there’s any bright side for Obama and his fellow Democrats, this long, hot summer will come to an end,” Horsley said. “And Newport notes the President’s president’s numbers have tended to rebound soon after Labor Day.”

Actually, the bright side is there are only two more Augusts to go in this presidency.

Listen to the whole report here:

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Don Noel

A self-described "political enthusiast," Don Noel is a veteran of the local political scene with keen insights to share about the world of politics, government and nonprofits.

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