So Barack Obama had what I’m told was a fencing demonstration, and not a sci-fi convention, on the White House lawn yesterday. I’m tempted to stop short of our sitting president’s apparently rabid enthusiasm for his city hosting the 2016 Olympics, especially after reading this take from Michael Sneed at the Chicago Sun-Times:

The private side: It’s this simple. The bottom-line message to President Obama from Mayor Daley and the 2016 Chicago Olympics contingent at the White House Wednesday: If Obama doesn’t personally pitch Chicago’s bid in Copenhagen next month, we will lose it!

The public side: Chicago 2016 bid champion Pat Ryan tells Sneed: “I am wildly enthusiastic about the fact that the first lady is leading our team in Copenhagen. The bid just left an amazing White House event, hosted by the president and first lady . . . We couldn’t be more excited . . .”

You do the math. via.

I really don’t care about the Olympics, but at the same time, it’d be great if we didn’t have to sit through tape delays to watch basketball and gymnastics. It doesn’t really matter, because once this decision is made by the IOC, it’s the end of this Abe Frohman photoshop either way. That’s too bad, because Ufford really liked rolling in that convertable. Obama img.

UPDATE: NBA.com reports that Obama was a guest of team owner Abe Pollin. Whoops.

It’s one thing to chastise companies trying to do business while taking bailout money from the federal government; it’s quite another to drop oneself in primeau courtside seats for a Washington Wizards game on Friday night and offer absolutely no explanation as to how one obtained them.

Friday night, [Obama] sat courtside at Verizon Center and watched the Washington Wizards trounce his hometown Bulls. One afternoon last month, Obama and his wife, Michelle, visited second-graders at a local public school because, Obama explained, “we were just tired of being in the White House.” The first lady chimed in: “We got out! They let us out!” [Seattle News]

It’s certainly possible that Obama could have paid for his seats out of his own pocket. But in a time where he’s demanding that such perks be yanked from corporate budgets, why not go out of his way to disclose that he didn’t use taxpayer money to get them? Why would he set himself up to look like a hypocrite? And nobody seems to have picked up on this; everyone’s shocked and proud that a black president would take himself to a basketball game. And I love how everyone is jumping in and yelling, “Well Bush never went to a game when he was president!” Bush probably never drank beer, either! It’s like he wasn’t even a real person!

So the White Sox are trying to sell this commemorative hat that has Barack Obama’s name and campaign logo on it. Sounds great, but how am I supposed to eat dinner on it?

The club has developed two prototype designs of its club hat with Obama marks on the side and back. The hats have been approved by MLB Properties.[...]

The White Sox enjoy a special relationship with the newly inaugurated president due to his roots in south Chicago. Should the hat happen as intended, proceeds from its sale would be donated to charities, likely ones that provide services near U.S. Cellular Field.

The team needs approval from the president before it can start selling the caps.

I’m not a big fan of a private entity proclaiming such a happy association with a sitting president. Unless it’s a big oil company. Or a multinational defense contractor. Those are relationships that I can live with. But baseball? Why don’t you make me put on a Russian uniform and ice skate across Red Square while you’re at it? At least in Moscow they still kill hookers for sport. It’s days like this that make me really miss the Cold War.

[SBJ, via Sun-Times Blog]

The semi-ironic thing about this was that it was found on FOXSports.com [thanks, Ben Maller]. And this is a classic “If I see one more political ad I’m going to absolutely snap” story, because this damn exercise in democracy couldn’t end soon enough.

The Obama campaign has purchased space in the popular Xbox 360 game “Madden NFL 09″ and nine other titles by video game maker Electronic Arts, said Holly Rockwood, the company’s director of corporate communications.

Only gamers playing online in 10 states can see the ads, which appear as stadium signage or billboards, Rockwood said. (The ads are downloaded when gamers log on to the Xbox Internet service.) Unsurprisingly, all 10 states are swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. President Bush won all of those states in 2004 except for Wisconsin.

The ads began running Oct. 6 and will be visible until Nov. 3, the day before Election Day, Rockwood said.

So remember, retards: Just because you have a poorly-crafted opinion about the future of our country doesn’t mean you have to vote. And if you do make it to the polls, don’t forget about the white guy! Of course I’m talking about Chuck Baldwin. Who did you think I meant?

[The Hill's Blog, not to be confused with that show that Ufford really likes]

There are a lot of blogger boners over the story of Senator Barack Obama playing basketball with the UNC Tar Heels.  Seriously, all the political bloggers and sports bloggers are getting excited for it.  The only other time you see so many tech-savvy gay losers acting in unison is at ComicCon.  I can practically hear them tapping on their iPhones.

Anyway, I prefer this little highlight mash-up from on 205th.  Although I'm still not sold on Obama.  I don't trust Irishmen.