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

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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.