Golf is not really an ideal game for reflecting the depth of your grief. Now croquet, there’s a proper game for letting the world know just how miserable you are.

Sure it looks like Obama is laughing on the outside. But he’s weeping on the inside.

The video, Mr. Manley, a longtime Democratic strategist, added, “was just so shocking that the idea that he was going to immediately run to the golf course was just a little too much for folks; it was tone-deaf.”

Aides said the golf game did not reflect the depth of his grief over Mr. Foley.

For Mr. Obama, the video of Mr. Foley’s death is acutely personal because it showed one of three other American civilians held hostage, Steven J. Sotloff, suggesting he would be killed next if the president did not stop bombing ISIS targets in Iraq. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” the masked killer says while holding the back of Mr. Sotloff’s orange, prison-style shirt.

This is grief with serious depth. Just look at that sad grieving fist bump. Sure it looks joyful on the outside, but clearly lacks the usual vim and vigor with which Obama fist bumps on the golf course after delivering a formulaic statement about the murder of an American.