Obama, Boehner relationships golf today

It’s just a friendly game, but Democrats and Republicans are managing expectations for Saturday’s golf summit between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner like the high stakes political theater it actually is.

The White House spent much of the week downplaying the president’s skills (Golf Digest has him, charitably, as a 17 handicap), while talking up the possibility the round will ease the way for an eventual bipartisan deal on the deficit.

Presidents and House speakers have a history of complicated relationships. Today, President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner will add their own chapter on the golf links, political opposites each trying to put a ball in the same hole.

Boehner, R-Ohio, and the president have a courteous, but not a social relationship.

Though the president's golf outings occur outside the eyes of journalists, White House spokesman Jay Carney announced Friday that this time, they will at least get to glimpse -- and a chance to photograph -- Obama and Boehner with their game faces on.

"They both play golf. A lot of Americans play golf," Carney said. "And this is an opportunity that I think has value beyond the game."

Obama is a regular golfer — most often at military base courses — but plays almost all of the time with a very small circle of younger male staffers who have been with him since his presidential campaign.

Here’s what I think Obama and Boehner get out of the golf summit:

♦ It gives them both a chance to look bipartisan. Can’t hurt.

♦ It lets them get to know each other. They have no personal relationship now.

♦ If they decide to talk a little business, they can, informally. Boehner called for Obama to be personally involved in the debt ceiling talks (Biden is handling the actual meetings with a bipartisan group) so that’s on the table. If they want to chat on areas where they have some agreement, there are trade and patent issues pending.

What I’m hearing: Don’t expect anything major to materialize from the golf outing; it’s a game of intangibles Saturday with potential deliverables sometime in the future.