Barack Obama already has White House remodeling plans: the bowling alley is gone

INDIANAPOLIS -- He hasn't yet won the Democratic nomination for president, let alone the November general election. But already Illinois Sen. Barack Obama says he has some renovation plans for the White House.

"I have sworn that we're taking out the bowling alley in the White House and we're putting in a basketball court," he said, according to a pool press report of his visit this afternoon to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle, Ind., today.

The Illinois Democrat is a big basketball fan and player. He shot a few baskets and looked at display cases and walls filled with pictures, pennants, jerseys, trophies and other memorabilia.

In a state where basketball is practically a religion, Obama has been mentioning the game at virtually every stop since he played a three-on-three game Friday evening with the winners of a voter registration effort organized by his campaign.

But this was the first word about his actual plans to change the White House after his poor 37 score and numerous gutter balls while trying to bowl during his Pennsylvania campaign.

-- John McCormick

John McCormick writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune Washington bureau.

Comments

[goldenstate]

Why would Obama want to waste taxpayer's money on a basketball court? The economy is in bad shape and he wants a basketball court in the White House. He just doesn't get it. How selfish and immature.

[cj]

In your dreams!!!!!!!!

[gloria]

Too bad he doesn't have the support of the American people.....better confine his remodekubg plans to working on his family relationships now that he sold out his grandma, who raised him, because she's white, and his sister who he barely acknowledges, because she's half Asian.

He goe's on about how he wasn't there when his mother died. If we think he's going to treat the American people better than he treats his own family.....good luck to us.

[ad]

presumably he was joking around, rather than saying this was a key issue for his presidency ;)

not quite sure why this is much of a story...

[alison]

To those who say it would be a waste of money to put in a basketball court, do your homework, for Pete's sake. Almost every single president has fiddled and tinkered and changed the sports facilities there. I believe it was Gerald Ford who installed an outdoor swimming pool, for one.

[Lenza Cornett]

Obama stained the very fabric of the American electorate that is needed to win the presidency. By expressing his elitist, highly insensitive views to a group of San Francisco millionaires he proved he doesn’t have the poignancy, the IQ nor the continental compass to be president. He is out of touch. He catered to these rich people’s “hauteur” and imperialistic musings without flinching or thinking of the consequences. He got caught pressing the self-destructive buttons any politico 101 knows:
101: Don’t insult your voters.
101: God believing people believe in God, good times or bad.
101: Bearing guns is a constitutional right and has nothing to do with class.
101: Not all small town folks are bigots. Obama’s own mother was a small town girl who was not a racist.
In sum, one hopes that the eventual nominee is the president for all people, at the very least “the smartest guy in the room.” This last “bitter” remark issue in addition to the way he handled the “God Damn America” Rev. Wright controversy clearly proves that Obama is not that “guy”. Let’s face it; Hillary is and has always been—35 years ago & from day one.

[rita forte]

"this was the first word about his actual plans to change the White House "

Actually, he mentioned this in his interview with Bryant Gumble a couple of weeks ago. Do try to keep up, won't you?

[jennifer potenciano]

who does obama think he is? like some God-anointed candidate of the democratic party?

excuse me, but obama’s presumptuousness is unbearable. he’s putting the cart before the horse, talking of remodeling the white house, when he can’t even wrap up the democratic party’s nominating contest, when he can’t even debate hillary, a la lincoln-douglas type.

first things first. let the american people see—via such hillary proffered debate-- if obama has got some grey matter in his cranium, before he hallucinates about rearranging things in the white house.

but no, it seems obama has got a warped sense of priorities. instead of prioritizing such debate, & giving the american electorate the chance to show more of his ‘brains’ & less of his bravado, obama doesn’t want anything to do with it. he can’t even answer directly hillary’s dare to debate.

obama’s refusal to debate hillary a la lincoln-douglas format surprises me. a prexy candidate withering under an intense grueling by his opponent has no right to even dream of making it even as a mere democratic nominee, more so as a white house tenant. why has obama so suddenly turned sissy to hillary, a lady presidential hopeful who has always said she’s ready to be commander-in-chief on day one?

as far as i know, obama is the first nominee-candidate in the history of american presidential contests who refuses to engage his opponent in a no-nonsense, one-on-one debate, where only policy issues or some such matter are taken up, & where the ‘irrelevant,’ ‘tough,’ ‘personal,’ ‘distracting’ questions that are obama’s nightmare aren’t given the chance to pop up.

by doing so, obama prevents the electorate to compare & contrast his & hillary’s specific programs of government. obama also denies himself an avenue by which to refute the charge that he really has got no program of government that he can rightfully & proudly call his own, giving credence to the claim that all he’s got is a rehashed hillary program that obama has appropriated for himself.

thus, by refusing to debate hillary under this new format, obama is doing the american people a disservice, even as he closes one avenue by which the electorate may know who’s got more sense as a nominee, & who’s got mere bluff.

what is obama afraid of? is he afraid that hillary would pummel him, figuratively speaking, during their debate, that he’d be shown up to the electorate as a mere strawman? is obama content with just deriding hillary via a kind press through name-calling, ad hominems, personal insults, & argumentum ad absurdum?

i didn’t know that a big mouth like obama—who always frets before a very cooperative press-- is such a shrinking violet, who can’t even handle a mere woman like hillary. come to think of it, it may be because hillary’s towering, highly analytic, encyclopedic, deeply-probing mind has never been obama’s intellectual match.

& finally, this so-called “growing concern’ within the democratic party about “what the debate would do to party unity.” i find this concern inane? is democratic party unity more important than the education of the electorate on what hillary & obama offer as an alternative to the republican stupidity? what can the unity of the democratic party do to counter the onslaught of the republican attack dogs, if the american electorate find little substance in what the democrats offer--& scant knowledge on the ultimate bearer of its torch to the people?

reconsider your silly stand on the hillary debate challenge, please, leaders of the democratic party. unless you want to rig the nominating contest in favor of a sissy like obama, go ahead, twist the knife yourselves, & ram it down the throats of your members. then might as well cut out the nominating contest farce.****

[mike]

Gloria you are the one who is Racist. I wonder how many times Clinton has acknowledged her brothers in this campaign or Mccain has acknowledged his brothers and Sisters. Why a different standard for Obama ? Maybe it's because he is black you know. I think its time to iron your white sheet. Cow!

[COL.[retd] A.M.Khajawall]

Dear Fellow Americans,

Our Great-grand Nation, the United States of America
is and will face very critical "Challenges" in coming
years and decades.

The Problems will be tough and solutions would not
easy.

The key will the cool, calm, and collectedness of our
next President[ What I call Presidential Temperament'
The one remaining candidate who has consistently that
Presidential Temperament is Senator Obama.

His message of change makes sense. We have to stop
doing business in Washington old ways. The new ways of
lifting each other up and stopping tearing each other
down will not held our Great grand Nation. The
Terrorists around the world[real] and inadvertently
assisted by some shortsighted media [Who are party to
this perpetuation of psychological terrorism of
mis-information, dis-information, and duplicity], that
is what we do not need.

In order to send the message around the world that
America is get Senator Obama our next president. At
least on thing he has shown consistently is the
presidential Temperament. The Temperament of our next
president is very critical address internal and
internal challenges. Let us defeat real external
terrorists snd internal psychological terrorists once
for all.

God Bless out Great grand Nation, its diverse people,
and Senator Obama. He is the ans her to our future
stability, security, safety, and regain our status in
the world.

Yours truly,

COL.[retd] A.M.Khajawall
Disables American Veteran.
Las Vegas Nevada.

[Mark O]

Goldenstate said: "Why would Obama want to waste taxpayer's money on a basketball court?"

Well he's not going to - it was self-deprecatory humor. Why do some people have to take everything so seriously? Next thing we'll probably see a Clinton attack ad criticizing Obama for this. Court-gate - that's what they'll call it.

Some people are so dumb.

[Anee]

Not sure why this is a story?

This story is symbolic of the arrogance of Obama, already making his WH plans and further that a good old , typical American bowling alley is not good enough for him.

Got it now?

[Clay]

I could NOT trust a man who bowled 37 to run head the HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE UNITED STATES...

theres something wrong with that picture...of a leader if the GREATEST MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD... Nt being able to control his physical extremities and roll a ball down the center of a bowling alley.

I mean at age 10 I was bowling in a kids league and bowled over 150 regularly.

How scary is that when a 10 year old can beat the Guy who wants to be PRESIDENT?.

Take some lessons and try again..

I thnk Hillary and Obama should just do a bowl off.

GO HILLARY!

[Sage]

Guess what folks, he was just making a joke. Calm down, he's not gonna spend that kind of money to put an indoor basketball court in the White House. If he did do it, he'd probably raise the money himself anyway.

I'm guessing he'd put a basketball hoop somewhere outside the White House, maybe near the Rose Garden. That's what I would do.

[edzeppelin]

Hey Clay - Hillary isn't so hot at bowling either, she showed us her skills on Ellen and it wasn't any better then Obama. Also, Obama bowled a "37", but that was 7 frames only, and two of those frames were bowled by children, not Barack, that said, he still is not a could bowler, but so what? "Control his physical extremeties"...oh please. Like bowlers are the supreme athletic specimen! I guess you missed Barack shooting 4 for 5 at the 3 on 3 game in Indiana. I say Hillary and McCain meet him on the basketball court if it comes down to an athletic contest, but obviously that would be stupid...but stupid doesn't seem to escape the posters on this blog.

[Wade]

Wow, a black guy that likes to play basketball. That sure is news!

[what?]

wow, a white guy that thnks all black guys like to play basketball.....typical ignorant racist that happens to be white.

this election season has sure shined a light on the dark racial attitudes of so many people in America. if white people in America feel as though blacks are racist againt them, we asked for it....they learned from the best...US

[Brian S]

Basketball playing elitist.. lol Do those words go together??

[Core Democrat]

Obama, Don't forget to put in a 10,000 seat church for your mentor, Wright! We would not want those Anti- American spews of hate to be missed by you and your wife. Get real! You have NO CHANCE OF LIVING AT 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE! That is reserved for Americans that have always been proud of their country.

[Tannim]

"In a state where basketball is practically a religion"

What's this "practically" stuff? As a native Hoosier I can say it's DEFINITELY a religion. If your first toy isn't a basketball people wonder about the parents.

The better question is would he have Lincoln in the low post? He wouldn't have Cheney at shooting guard, because that would be a disaster, as he'd "fowl" out in a hurry.

[Stan]

I think they should change the name of the White House. How did it ever get the name in the first place. Let's call it the House of the People. Thats who we all are.

[Paul R]

This is clearly a joking response to a question bout what he would change at the white house if elected. If anyone saw the footage of him bowling in the primaries, you would understand why he wants to do away with the lanes.

[Close to the Action]

Get rid of that stupid Rose Garden and put in an outdoor court - with bleachers. Which president had that girlie garden installed anyway?

'course if Palin/McCain make it in , be prepared for WWF wrestling ring.

[Frankli Mi Deer]

It certainly is funny to look back a few months and see the opposition talking points of the time. It is really sinking in how much "you people" hate the man

It is a great and wonderful that that "you people" do NOT represent a majority of the voters!

[mike]

I accept Obama as Our President even though I didn't vote for him, but can it be possible that we also recognize the fact that he is white just as much as he is black?

I must say that I am offended by everyone dismissing that fact. And am I the only one who feels this way? I can't be.

Im looking into a future with alot of hope and I hope that President Obama can do all that he has promised, but I'm weary about how he is considered black so that in this case it would be safe to call him white as well, wouldn't it, since everyone claims the 50% of him black?