President Barack Obama may be struggling to boost a weak economy and push through healthcare reform, but he is making undisputed progress in one area — he’s raised his bowling score from an embarrassing 37 — out of a possible 300 — to a 144.

The athletic U.S. 47-year-old, known as an enthusiastic basketball player , scored one of his presidential race’s few missteps last year during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania when he tried bowling and posted the 37, a result far below the respectable range. 

So it seemed surprising when his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Obama, who turns 48 on Tuesday, had included some bowling in his birthday celebrations with friends during the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat.

It was even more surprising when Gibbs insisted that Obama had rolled an eminently respectable 144, almost quadrupling his score during the ill-fated campaign stop.  “I watched the last four throws:  three strikes and a nine. I’m just saying,” Gibbs told an incredulous White House press corps. “I told the president, ‘Look if you’d have done this in Pennsylvania, my life would have been a little easier last spring.’”

That awkward performance at a sport strongly identified with the U.S. working class was mocked by Obama’s critics as a sign that the candidate, a former law professor and graduate of two of the country’s most elite universities, could not relate to regular Americans.

Obama has said since that he has been practicing his bowling. And Gibbs insisted the higher score was accurate. “The bowling happened right in front of me,” he said.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

Nine months after losing the U.S. presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain is still taking center stage to voice disagreement with his former U.S. Senate colleague.

On Monday, McCain announced in a Senate speech that he would vote against Obama’s first U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, a federal judge for the past 17 years.

“She is an immensely qualified candidate,” McCain conceded.

But he added: “I do not believe that she shares my belief in judicial restraint.”

Echoing the concerns of a number of Senate Republican leaders, McCain complained she has ruled based not strictly by the law but also personal beliefs.

Despite a wall of Republican opposition, Sotomayor seems virtually certain to be confirmed this week by the Democratic-led Senate.

The American Bar Association gave Sotomayor its top rating, she has been supported by a number of law enforcement groups, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which often sides with Republicans, urged the Senate to confirm her, saying her record shows that she would be fair to business.

McCain said he monitored Sotomayor’s testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing last month. He said liked what he heard, but didn’t necessarily believe it.

“She clearly stated that ‘as a judge, I don’t make law.’ While I applaud this statement, it does not reflect her record as an appellate court judge.”

“As an appellate court judge, Judge Sotomayor has been overturned by the Supreme Court six times,” McCain said.

McCain lost to Obama after issuing countless warnings about the now popular president. He put out another warning on Monday — this one to fellow lawmakers.

“The American people will be watching this week when the Senate votes on Judge Sotomayor’s nomination. She is a judge who has forsworn judicial activism in her confirmation hearings, but who has a long record of it,” McCain said.

“If she uses her lifetime appointment on the bench as a perch to remake law in her own image of justice, I expect that Americans will hold us senators accountable,” McCain said.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Obama and McCain talk at a recent meeting)

Colin Powell says some “adult supervision” could have kept an altercation between Henry Louis Gates, a black Harvard University professor, and Sgt. James Crowley, a white policeman, from blowing up into a “federal case” about race in America.

The former U.S secretary of state, who says he has been racially profiled “many times,”  weighed in on the arrest of his friend “Skip” Gates on Tuesday evening, telling CNN’s Larry King that it was a fascinating story that unfolded in several acts.

Gates was arrested at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and charged with disorderly conduct. Crowley had responded to the call when a neighbor reported a possible break-in at Gates’ home. Gates had just returned home from a trip to China and found his door jammed. This is how the two men came face-to-face.

“This is where act two begins. We’re not quite sure what the nature of their conversation was, but apparently it disturbed Sgt. Crowley and apparently Dr. Gates was disturbed by being challenged in his own home,” Powell said.

“Then it becomes a federal case when the president feels obliged to say something about it, ” Powell said.

The charges against Gates were quickly dropped, but Powell says the incident might have been resolved in a different manner had cooler heads prevailed.

“I’m saying that Skip, perhaps in this instance, might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer and that might have been the end of it,” Powell said.  “I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal.”

And the police could have handled things differently too, Powell said.

“Once they felt they had to bring Dr. Gates out of the house and to handcuff him, I would have thought at that point some adult supervision would have stepped in and said, OK, look, it is his house… Take the handcuffs off.  Good night Dr. Gates.”

Dr. Gates and Sgt. Crowley will meet again on Thursday at the White House, this time over beer with President Barack Obama.  Who’s bringing the adult supervision?

After just a few months in office and having fiercely resisted calls for his resignation, Illinois Senator Roland Burris has decided Congress is not his calling after all.

The Chicago Democrat appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama plans to announce on Friday he won’t seek election to a full six-year term in 2010. Word leaked out a day early, with sources in Chicago and Washington confirming Burris’ plans to forgo the midterm election.

The Chicago Sun-Times broke the news, reporting that Burris had raised only about $20,000 toward what undoubtedly would have been a very expensive campaign. The newspaper also quoted a source as saying that Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, was concerned about his legacy.

He entered office under a big cloud that never cleared. Burris was appointed on Dec. 30 by former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who later was impeached and indicted on corruption charges — including trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

Burris escaped a perjury charge last month when prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence aganist him. Burris declared his appointment “perfectly legal” and said he had never offered the ousted governor anything.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Frank Polich (Burris reacts to audience applause after speaking at a Chicago, church in  March)

It's one thing they can agree on... baseball. 

Major League Baseball is bringing all five living U.S. presidents together at next week's 80th All-Star Game.

President Barack Obama and his predecessors George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter will appear in a 7-minute video presentation as part of the U.S. sports league's all-star festivities on Tuesday in St. Louis. Baseball called it the first time all living U.S. presidents would participate in a ceremony at a sporting event.

The video address will be part of a pre-game ceremony honoring 30 men and women being recognized by MLB and People magazine for acts of giving and service to their communities. Each person represents one of the sport's 30 teams.

President Obama will follow the video presentation by thorwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the game.

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Bush hosted meeting at White House for all presidents after  Obama became president-elect)

President Barack Obama artfully dodged a request from Chilean reporters Tuesday for an apology for CIA meddling in Latin America, but he caved in to another demand.
 
“President Obama, can you take a photograph with the Chilean press, please?” one reporter asked at the end of an Oval Office statement by Obama and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
 
“A photograph with the press?” Obama asked. “OK, why don’t we go outside?”
 
The U.S. leader was less forthcoming on the matter of apologizing for the CIA’s long history of meddling in the affairs of Latin American governments.
 
The CIA has denied direct involvement in the overthrow and death of Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973 but has acknowledged trying to prevent him from assuming the presidency three years earlier.
 
And it has acknowledged supporting the military junta that took control of country after the coup.
 
Bachelet, then a college student, was imprisoned and tortured following the coup, as was her mother. Her father, who had been an air force general in the Allende government, was imprisoned and tortured to death.
 
Asked if it was time for an apology for the CIA’s activities in Chile, Obama said, “I’m interested in going forward, not looking backward.”
 
“I think that the United States has been an enormous force for good in the world. I think there have been times where we’ve made mistakes,” he said. “But I think that what is important is looking at what our policies are today, and what my administration intends to do in cooperating with the region.”
 
That said, he did manage a chuckle at U.S. expense — over the old joke that there’s never been a coup in the United States because it has no American Embassy.
 
Someone else told the joke, Bachelet insisted after it was attributed to her.
 
“I just said it was a good joke,” she said.
 
“Yes, it is,” said Obama, laughing.
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama, Bachelet pose with Chilean traveling press)

President Barack Obama poked fun at his close relationship with the press on Friday and teased radio and TV correspondents their industry “was more relevant than ever,” despite more and more Americans turning elsewhere for news.

Obama said he had trouble coming up with fresh jokes after delivering a similar routine just five weeks ago at the annual White House correspondents dinner, a glitzy affair attracting big Hollywood stars.

“The jokes may not be as good, but neither is the guest list,” Obama said at the Radio and Television Correspondents  Associations Dinner. “For me, there’s no contest. Why bother hanging out with celebrities, when I can spend time with the people who made me one?”

“A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning trying to figure exactly what to say. Finally, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked (NBC News anchor) Brian Williams what he thought,” Obama said.

Williams recently hosted a gushing two-night special that took viewers “Inside the Obama White House,” and featured such hard-hitting spots as the president firing up his motorcade to pick up hamburgers for his staff. “The truth is, Brian Williams is actually a terrible house guest. He put an empty milk carton back in the fridge. He leaves his wet towels all over the Roosevelt room. We’re pretty sure he clogged the toilet and didn’t tell anybody,” Obama said to roars from the crowd.

Obama joked was he spending much of his time rescuing failed banks and auto companies, but “you probably wouldn’t understand the concept of troubled industries working as you do in radio and television.”

When that joke got a tepid response, Obama sensed he had hit a sore spot and added: “Ho ho. We don’t joke about that. That’s not funny.”

“Despite the flood of new media, I think your programing is more relevant than ever before at least that’s the impression I get when I read the blogs every day,” Obama said.

(Additional reporting by Wendell Marsh)

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

There is a new crisis on the agenda for President Barack Obama.

While trying to revitalize a nosediving economy, rebuild the collapsing auto industry, rein in North Korea’s unpredictable Kim Jong-il and overhaul the costly healthcare system, Obama now can ponder his response to an Iran reeling from a disputed election and the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Several leading Republicans have hammered Obama for what they say is a too cautious approach to the disputed vote that gave hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a big win over former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi. Obama said on Monday he was “deeply troubled” by the post-election violence but it was up to the Iranians to work out who their leaders will be.

Republicans say that is not good enough.

“He should speak out that this is a corrupt, fraud, sham of an election.  The Iranian people have been deprived of their rights,” Senator John McCain said on NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday.

While Obama considers his next move on Iran, however, he will also grapple with North Korea during a White House meeting on Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The South Korean leader has taken a tough line on North Korea even before Pyongyong ratched up tension in recent weeks by test-firing missiles, restarting a plant to produce weapons-grade plutonium and holding a May 25 nuclear test.

Millions of Americans could be staring at blank TV screens tomorrow, when broadcasters switch to digital signals.

The U.S. government has spent years preparing for the switch, which aims to free up airwaves for broadband and enhanced emergency communications.

The change-over will only affect those who get their TV over the air, rather than through cable or satellite connections.

But many consumers probably still haven’t gotten a converter box which will allow them to watch the new digital signals with their rabbit-ear antennas.

That means they’ll miss out on the frothy mix of news and entertainment (newsertainment?) of NBC’s “Today Show,” where this morning Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin declared she’s “absolutely not necessarily” the future of the Republican Party.

In case you’re wondering, Palin’s still steamed at talk show host David Letterman, who made sexual jokes about her daughter a few nights back.

“It was a degrading comment about a young woman and I would hope people really start rising up and saying it’s not acceptable,” Palin said.

In Washington, the CEOs of General Motors and Chrysler appear before Congress to explain the process of closing dealerships — not a popular move with lawmakers who have taken millions in campaign contributions from car sellers.

President Barack Obama meets Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House at 3:30.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine (Palin joins former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and wife Judith Nathan at a Yankees game, June 7)

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Barack Obama and Joe Biden head to the Midwest today.

The Chinese Gitmo detainees are heading to paradise.

No, they’re not winging to heaven to enjoy the company of 72 virgins. The Uighurs, as they’re known, are being resettled in various beachy, tropical locales as the Obama administration seeks to empty the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison.

The United States has struggled for months to find a home for the Chinese Muslims, who were scooped up in 2001 during the invasion of Afghanistan. The Uighurs had no beef with the U.S., their lawyers say, but were instead part of an independence movement in China’s far west.

China wanted them to face the music back home, but it sounds like they’ll be facing the music of Jimmy Buffett instead. The Pacific Island nation of Palau agreed to take on all 17 detainees yesterday; today the Justice Department said four have already been resettled in Bermuda.

Six other Uighurs were sent to Albania in 2006, a former Communist state better known for pyramid schemes and bunkers than beaches. Evidently, good things come to those who wait.

photo credit: REUTERS/Tim Wimborne (footprints on an Australian beach — not where the Uighurs are going, but possibly what they’ll be experiencing).

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