Opinion: Video evidence: Barack Obama plays b-ball better than he bowls

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Barack Obama probably will spend the rest of his political career taking grief over his ineptitude as a bowler.

It was last Saturday, as part of his sustained effort to curry favor with certain segments of Pennsylvania’s Democratic electorate, that Obama dropped by a bowling alley in Altoona and proceeded to embarrass himself. Chris Matthews has been among those not letting him forget it; the MSNBC commentator opened an extended interview with the presidential candidate Wednesday by asking Obama if he was ‘ready to bowl from Day One.’

Obama replied good-naturedly: ‘Obviously, I am not.’ But he added: ‘Basketball I can play.’

Thanks to YouTube -- as well as a good friend of The Ticket, Ben Welsh, who called our attention to it -- voters now have a chance to examine Obama in his heyday as a high school hoopster in Hawaii. We aren’t experts in this field, but he looks better than we ever were.

Welsh also passed along contemporary footage that proves Obama -- who not along ago revealed plans to install a hardwood court somewhere in the White House or on its grounds if he wins the presidency --has kept his stroke.

-- Don Frederick