Baller-in-Chief

(From Marc Hansen the Des Moines Register)

You just knew there was going to be somebody in Iowa who went to school in Hawaii and played basketball with Barry Obama.

It was inevitable. This is the Brush With Greatness State, after all.

Kam Mahi is the director of information services at Graceland University in Lamoni. When the wind chill dips below zero, he sometimes wonders why he isn’t back in Hawaii.

Mahi’s father is from the islands. His mother is from Iowa. They met at Graceland. Born in Mount Ayr, Mahi moved to Honolulu with his family when he was 4.

He played on the Punahou high school basketball team with Obama, long before Obama dropped the nickname Barry and became the 44th president of the United States.

“It’s really surreal,” Mahi says. “I knew he’d be successful, but not this successful.”

When Mahi found out Barry Obama had become president of the Harvard Law Review, he wasn’t surprised. But seriously, who expects a high school chum to end up in the White House?

They played ball together until senior year, when the players were split into two units. Obama was a reserve on the team that won the state championship.

He didn’t enjoy being a reserve. It’s hard to shoot from the bench.

An ABC News report says he was called “Barry Obomber.” Mahi doesn’t remember that, but he can see why they would.

Defying the laws of nature, Barack Obama is somehow thinner than he was as Barry. He lost the Afro, too.

But some things haven’t changed: “He was a real bright guy with a lot of drive,” Mahi says. “A likable buddy.”

Mahi remembers Obama as a good student but not one of the elites, a charismatic kid who took part in numerous activities but was more interested in making hoops than grades.

Punahou is a big, prestigious private school teeming with overachievers. Steve Case, co-founder of America Online (AOL), might have been the most successful alumnus at one time, but not now.

“Barry was on scholarship,” Mahi says. “If you were on scholarship, you had to work on the campus. Punahou is more like a college prep school, so the schedule is set up with open periods between classes where you can study or whatever.”

The “Rat-Ballers,” as they called themselves, chose whatever, playing pickup basketball games for hours on end.

Obama thought he was headed for the pros. Even Mahi figured his teammate would continue dribbling somewhere after high school.

The dream might have ended in the state championship game when the Buffanblu (buff and blue colors, if that helps) won, 60-28, and Obama came off the bench to score two points.

As the story goes, Obama was a freelancer in a deliberate, carefully scripted offense – a jazz musician in a marching band – forever lobbying for more playing time.

When Obama noticed his old coach at a campaign stop, it was confession time. He admitted he might have overestimated his ability.

Mahi laughs and says, “We all thought we were better than we probably were.”

Mahi calls himself an independent who votes for the person, not the party. He heard the birth certificate speculation during the campaign and the “palling around with terrorists” accusations.

“To anyone who knows Barry,” he says, “it seemed fairly ridiculous.”

While some people say sports builds character, Mahi seems more a graduate of the sports-reveals-character school.

“We lived on opposite sides of the island,” he says, “but I knew him pretty well. We were raised in similar settings. He came from a hard-working ethic where you do things right and live by the golden rule.”

Mahi hasn’t talked to Barack Obama in a few years but he chatted with Michelle Obama when she spoke to a group at Graceland.

“She knew who I was,” he says, “which really surprised me.”

Mahi and Barry Obama are in that Punahou Buffanblu team picture that pops up now and then on TV. Mahi is No. 14.

“I’m the one Barry’s resting his elbow on,” he says, proving that every now and then “brush with greatness” is more than a dopey metaphor.

(From David Kranz of the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader)

No doubt Sen. John Thune, R-S.D, had one of the best seats in the house during the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

That prime position created curiosity back home with some wondering out loud how a Democratic president can allow a Republican to be so close by.

Well, the Obama-Thune ties go back to somewhere after Election Day 2004. That day marked Thune’s victory over Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Obama’s election as a U.S. senator from Illinois.

Not long after, maybe a few hours or so, talk began that the two new senators might challenge each other in a game of basketball.

From that point on, the two men’s mutual interest in the sport has become the subject of light discussion.

Not long after Obama’s inauguration, Thune and Obama injected basketball again into their ongoing conversation about the sport.

Someone even joked about the possibility of placing a basketball court in the White House so that the two of them could play.

The conversation doesn’t seem to bother Thune. Especially now that he’s doing things to demonstrate his sure-fire bid for re-election such as hiring a campaign manager.

With the basketball conversation, Thune’s getting national visibility with the president of the United States without even trying.

For instance, did we mention Sports Illustrated?

In January, there was a long account written by Alexander Wolff about John Thune, Barack Obama and basketball.

Wolff writes: “After helping make him who he is, after helping him get elected, how might basketball influence the way Obama governs? People it will behoove him to get along with – both Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodr’guez Zapatero play regularly – could wind up as guests in presidential games. For Cabinet officials there will be face time with the president, and for those who play (prospective Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Attorney General-designate Eric Holder), there will be in-your-face time as well.”

And one of Thune’s high-ranking staffers offered this reference in a story by Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin that appeared in December in www.dcexaminer.com. The subject, of course: basketball.

“Just because everyone ooh’d and aah’d Barack Obama’s basketball prowess during the presidential campaign, doesn’t mean that you should necessarily believe the hype. He’s good, but he’s apparently not that good … at least when compared with some of his Senate colleagues.”

Then there’s the ever-popular “on-background” comment from a Republican U.S. senator published in that article.

“Look, Barack Obama’s good, but he’s definitely not the best basketball player in the Senate. Not by a long shot. John Thune is the best basketball player in the Senate. Bar none.”

While most things don’t really seem certain in life, in this case there is one thing that is.

Thune and Obama enjoy their appreciation for basketball. However, the president need not expect that much cooperation from Thune when the Senate roll calls are taken.

“They will be focusing on what needs to get done. There are more pressing matters,” says Andi Fouberg, deputy communications director for Thune.

Speaking of re-election

Much of the other conversation about Thune’s re-election bid revolves around who Democrats will pit to run against him.

Democrats most often suggest that it might be U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. She likely would provide worthy opposition for him, but there is no indication from Herseth Sandlin’s camp that she would like to do that.

If she vacates her House seat for another role, it’s a race for governor of South Dakota that’s most often mentioned.

Thune might draw a token candidate, but few would want to have the token label hung around his or her neck.

So far, no names have been offered as candidates willing to jump in.

Ken Blanchard, Northern State University political science professor, sees it this way.

“My impression is that it would be hard to find anyone credible to run against John Thune. He seems to be very popular, right now running on an ideal balance. He is in the national press, better thought of than most senators from small states and is still a down-home boy.”

As much of a challenge as it might seem, we don’t hear Democrats ready to throw in the towel, though.

(From GOP 21)

David Kranz chats up the sports-centric friendship between South Dakota Sen. John Thune and the POTUS:

…. the Obama-Thune ties go back to somewhere after Election Day 2004. That day marked Thune’s victory over Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Obama’s election as a U.S. senator from Illinois.

Not long after, maybe a few hours or so, talk began that the two new senators might challenge each other in a game of basketball.

From that point on, the two men’s mutual interest in the sport has become the subject of light discussion.

Not long after Obama’s inauguration, Thune and Obama injected basketball again into their ongoing conversation about the sport….The conversation doesn’t seem to bother Thune….With the basketball conversation, Thune’s getting national visibility with the president of the United States without even trying.

If Thune does, indeed, become the GOP’s head-of-ticket in 2012, you can expect troves of terrible basketball metaphors to line the headlines.

a. “Slam Dunk! Election provokes huge interest world wide”.

b. “The game is on.”

c. “In 2012, who will stand taller?”

And can’t you hear Howard Fineman and Gene Robinson finishing an in-studio chat with a “Why don’t they just settle it in a game of horse?” laugh line that leaves Keith Olbermann wondering why he ever left Sportscenter?

Swish!

(From Roland Smith for the Roland Report at Essence Magazine Online)

The new president has been in office one week and already the clock is ticking as to whether or not he can get a lot accomplished in the first 100 days of his presidency.

Did I miss the memo? I thought the presidency is a four-year term?

If you turn on television or radio, commentators, correspondents and talk show hosts are speaking in breathless tone about the need for President Barack Obama to get off to a fast start and show all kinds of accomplishments in the first 100 days. And we are given the sense that if he hasn’t signed a lot of major bills into law and issued a slew of important executive orders, then he would have failed.

Oh stop it.

Lest you think this is about Obama, it isn’t. I thought it was just as stupid to put Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush on some kind of silly shot clock.

This Washington, D.C. parlor game happens every four years. It has gotten so silly that some folks actually analyzed Obama’s first 100 hours. It took that long to figure out the quickest path from the presidential sleeping quarters to the Oval Office!

The problem with so much emphasis being placed on the first 100 days is that a premium is placed on speed as opposed to thoughtfulness.

Take the president’s stimulus package.

We are looking at spending $900 billion, and Congress is proceeding so fast that I doubt most of the members have actually read the entire bill. We know from history that moving with lightning speed leads to all kinds of problems later on.

The Patriot Act was rushed through, and we didn’t find out about some of the weird provisions until after it was already signed into law. Oops! Sorry, too late.

The same with the previous bailout of the banking industry. We didn’t discover until after it was too late that there were no provisions on focus on accountability of the funds, as well as mandates to ensure banks didn’t sit on the cash to buy other banks, and instead, used it to open up the credit lines.

These measures are too doggone important for us to act like we’re watching the movie the Fast and the Furious.

The fundamental problem with this approach is that every president operates like they are President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who set the initial standard for decisive action in the first 100 days of his presidency. Ever since then, my media comrades have tried to hold each president to this same timetable, not realizing that times are different, and the needs of the nation are different.

I believe in taking action when necessary. But I also realize that doing something for the sake of doing something is dangerous, and sets a horrible precedent. And we are seeing this now with the stimulus package.

The House is scheduled to vote on the measure today with very little discussion about the nuances of the bill. The notion of oversight, how to manage the spending of billions of dollars, and whether the right programs will be funded initially, have gone by the wayside in order to, as some have suggested, give the president a quick victory out of the gate.

As a basketball player, President Obama knows that you can have a hot first quarter, hitting every shot and grabbing every rebound, and that could very well propel you to a decisive victory. But a basketball game is four quarters, and if you only play the first half well, you can blow the game in the second half.

We need thoughtful, measured political leaders who have studied all the angles and are making the right calls. Let’s focus on our long-term future, and not be bogged down in meeting a ridiculous report card for the satisfaction of the media.

(From Extra TV Online)

The Story behind This Candid Obama Pic

Robert McNeely is compiling “The Official Obama Inaugural Photo Book” — and dished about his favorite snapshot of the new President!

ObamaPhotoBook.com

Barack Obama is pictured here talking basketball with a supporter. “It summed up for me his approach to his politics, sort of defensive, but ready and alert,” said McNeely. “It’s my favorite picture I made of him.”