It is absurd how people get worked up about President Obama's enjoyment of the Tournament. Personally I have enjoyed comparing my picks to the President's (he cleaned me out last year...........)

It can't be all serious, a guy has got to have some fun, even a POTUS!

If being president doesn't work out, Barack Obama might be interested in college-basketball analyst

What do they mean by "If"?

Wake up and look around for Christ sakes!

The president displayed his knowledge of basketball at an appearance at a first-round NCAA tournament game, but politics wasn't far behind.

I can't wait to see how the Republicans spin this one...Anything to display ignorance and hate. I will keep count

for all the people who say Obama sucks as POTUS, how about you try it for a few days and see how you feel IT ISN'T AS SIMPLE AS YOU THINK ( anyone who says differently is just plain clueless)

everyone deserves a break once in a while

now other then that its going to be interesting to see how the GOP is going to react

How exciting for the two teams playing and the fans to have both POTUS and the Prime Minister of Britain at their game. PM Cameron has never been to an NCAA tournament game. It's beyond me how some people think a President should never have any fun.

Rob in ma, why don't you wake up and look around; your jealousy is showing.

Wake up and look around for Christ sakes!

We did Robbie. That's WHY Obama is in the White House silly little man.

Air Force One landed at Wright Patterson AF Base outside Dayton where President Obama and David Cameron were to join up with Ohio Governor John Kasich and proceed to the game. The TV showed Cameron and Obama many times but I never saw Kasich. I wonder if John made it but at least we know he was invited.

Do you think the only topic on the trip was basketball or do you think that in the two-way trip on AF1 there were serious discussions about Iraq, Afghan and other important world topics?

Of course the GNOP will complain that he isn't at his desk solving all the problems in the US/World 24/7....of course they never complained when Bush punched the clock at 5pm nightly and seemed to be on a schedule that Congress now seems to be following..like vacations every month or so,,,

@ Dennis. Good point, but I think it is a little too deep for some other posters to get.

You people are UNBELIEVABLE!

So the man watched a basketball game.... BIG DEAL! You want to see 'racist haters'? Look in the mirror!

Your comments and accusations of what conservatives will say about this expose your true colors!

(hypocrites!)

(show me the clown nose, fisty!)

I am stunned that there is not a headline article on MSN this morning reporting that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the cost of Mr. Obama's health care reform is going to be TWICE the cost that we were told it would be by the president, when he was sneaking his plan thru congress.

I take it back...I'm not stunned at all that MSN shunned this major story...much more important to report on what Mr. Obama had to say while attending a sporting event in a swing state that he'll need to win in November.

Go figure !

There is not doubt that Ohio is certainly "what it's all about" when it comes to electoral politics for a president expected to be in a tough fight for reelection this November.

Even the authors at MSNBC know Obama is in for a tough fight. Amazing how the liberals on this board haven't picked up on that yet.

Hey there Brian,.........

I'm not taking it for granted. I am going to be out there in force along with other Progressives who happen to enjoy the progress this country has enjoyed since being pulled back from the republican abyss.

Hopefully our President will become even more Progressive in his second term to help stamp out republicanism in our lifetime.

Brianb, seriously, you honestly believe that liberals, including those of us who post here, do not understand that the election will be a tough fight. There is a conservative party that hates him so much for so many reasons, many of which are beyond comprehension, and yet you claim we don't get that! I read it nearly every day on FR. It was a tough fight in 2008. It will be a tough fight in 2012. What do the GOP candidates offer America that is any different from the failed policies of Bush 43, the policies that collapsed the economy? It's the same stuff, cut taxes for the rich; decrease government; eliminate regulations especially those financial ones that eliminated too big to fail and let's collapse the economy again and add trillions more to the debt while weakening this country in the process. So far, the only thing they offer is "it's President Obama's fault"and failed policies of the past. Yeah, that'll work; it worked so well for Bush 43--let's try it again.

Obahhhhhma! Obahhhhma!

Right on Jody.

All Americans have to do is remember who was driving the last time the country's economy crashed.

And we're done here.......

All Americans have to do is remember who was driving the last time the country's economy crashed.

Yep. Republican President Bush in the White House, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid controlling the House and Senate.

Obahhhhma, Obahhhhhma...please explain why your health care reform costs will turn out to be DOUBLE the amount you promised.

Sir...were you 'lying' or were you 'wrong' ???

"Health Care Reform"...the gift that keeps on giving !

1:33PM on Wednesday and still no reporting on MSN that the president's 'healthcare reform' plan is now projected to cost close to $2 trillion instead of Mr. Obama's promised 'under $1 trillion'.

I guess that MSN doesn't want to rain on the breaking news of Mr. Obama's NCAA college basketball picks. They sure know what qualifies as important "news" for the masses.

I'm thinking he can get a job on his pet network.

Win-win. They will get a badly needed ratings boost- and the rest of us will be rid of him.

Imagine being able to turnoff his dulcet tones- with no ramifications to the country!

Won't matter to the "journalists" on this site, but their colleagues have some problems with his administration

http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=1099#1099

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm willing to bet that the 15% who do not have a problem with the censorship of this White House work- right- here. NBC, MSNBC. Media Matters- in which NBC has an ownership stake.

The real journalists? Have a problem. A big one.

Be nice if they talked about it publicly. The blood's in the water, folks. Lay the groundwork for the next administration- or you will be settling for the precedent set by this White House.

Censorship. Right here in America.

Absolutely disgusting.

No Joe:

The day President Obama is inaugurated for his second term I am coming on these boards looking for you.

I will laugh loud, long, and sweet.

Pomegranate martinis for everybody.

The Socialist Stalker..................

GOPis...

Yeah...we'll need lots of martinis with this birdbrain in office for another four years.

Its not the time- its the COST.

This little junket- at a hundred grand an hour for AF One- well, do the math.

That the problem. He runs barefoot through taxpayer borrowed dollars.

And we're pretty sick of it.

"He runs barefoot through taxpayer borrowed dollars."

That's pretty funny. So the leader of the freakin free world can't go watch a basketball game? That's pretty pathetic, if you ask me. Our country is done if we can't foot the bill to send our elected leader to Dayton Ohio. Is the right really this out of touch? Or could it be that they are just really sore losers. I would have to side with the latter.

And I'll bet Cameron was pleased with the excursion---fostering good relations with one of our longest and closest allies is priceless.

It is sad to say that any President couldn't safely travel anywhere on regular transporation--that is a function of the times we live in.

Sixteen trillion in debt and growing. The president can watch the game at home rather than dropping a million on a campaign trip and handing us the bill.

And pleeeease...this was nothing but a campaign trip.

no joe, tony, were you bitchin' about all the trips to Crawford by your hero W?? He was on vacation more days than he was on the job

Lone...

Who said George Bush was my "hero" ??? And John McCain was a lousy candidate...he joins a list including Bob Dole (R), John Kerry (D), Jimmy Carter (D).

I can't say Barack Obama (D) was a lousy candidate...he ran a good campaign and gave great speeches.

I can say he is a lousy president, however. His healthcare plan wasn't scheduled to kick in until after the 2012 elections because neither he nor his staff had any idea of how expensive it would eventually turn out to be. Nor did they care...as long as it could be rushed thru and passed with minimal inspection.

Unfortunately in this country, running good campaigns and reading good speeches can be enough to get a lot of votes from American voters who are apparently too busy with their ipads and iphones to pay much attention 364 days out of the year.

you know where you can stick your popcorn

Sure Arizona you can tuck it up your puckered starfish,....one kernel at a time.

Can you kiss my Ameican ass? And if you are a Marxist lover and a Socialist, do a double kiss. I bet though I know where you sorry ass is coming from? Born that way right?

Don't normally care for the "collapse" function on this board but would not be sorry to see this tasteless thread discarded.

C'mon, guys, really?

True Mark. I took it down the sewer. Mea culpa.

Apologies Arizona, and I pledge better conduct Mark.

HAHA, dang, someone else called you a Socialist too.

How come the right wing never asks how much Bushs' trips to Crawford Texas cost????Seeing as Bush was on vacation for about 3 out his 8 years in office........

Bush is no longer in office.

Will,

How can you judge if this President is spending too much on trips if you put blinders on to what other President’s spent?

Well, I don't have the actual figures but I venture to guess that hanging out at one's ranch --- which is one's home --- costs much less than a week or 10 days at Martha's Vinyard, a private beach in Hawaii, a date night jaunt in New York or in Spain.

Considering how so many others in the country are struggling, President Obama could rack up a bunch of brownie points if he announced he was paying for some of these trips himself. He's got the money. He's one of those 1%ers.

But Bush made 83 trips to Croford, on average, once every 5 weeks.

AF1 + staff + trips by Admin for meetings + security + etc,

I did not pass judgement on our President. I am just trying to bring up some relevant facts. My biggest concern is all of this debt that the federal government has been generating that us tax payers are eventually going to have to pay for. The deficits run by the previous administration were bad enough but that does not justify the even higher deficits by the current administration. The President is suppose to be against deficit spending. The President promised that he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first administration and it is not happening.

Anytime a President goes "on vacation" - he is never really "on vacation." It is a 24/7/52 job. I don't believe any of them ever really find that R&R they probably could use. Here the President is at a basketball game and has to give an interview while he's there.

I'm just saying, in these times when so many others are struggling, it would be better, I think, to appear as if he wasn't jet-setting. With the amount of debt we have, he can be perceived as dismissive and elite. It makes him appear out of touch. Politically he'd score more points making it look like he was making some sacrifices. Especially since jetting off to a basket ball game is something a 1%er would do.

Will,

You may want to correct your budget numbers. FY2012 deficit is $1.3 tril and FY2013 is $900 bil.

No he didn’t meet his objective to half the deficit by his 4th year.

The debt limit is a useless political gimmick because it is only needed for money that has already been spent.

Budgets do not control spending, spending bills do. Just last Dec the Republican controlled passed spendings bills that approves spending $1.3 trillion more than the projected revenues.

Both of the Romney and Ryan budgets call for adding at least another $6 trillion to the National debt.

but, but, but Bush did it......................

The CBO is projecting that the 2012 federal deficit will be around 1.2 trillion dollars. The White House is projecting a 2012 federal deficit of 1.33 trillion dollars. The last full year of the Bush administration was 2008 and the federal deficit for that year was 458.55 billion dollars. And I thought that was bad. The President said that under his administration, he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. The last full year of President Obama's first term is 2012 so to keep his promise the federal deficit must not exceed 229.27 billion dollars. That apparently is not going to happen by a factor of at least 5. We are already more than 15 trillion dollars in debt. I estimate that the 1.2 trillion dollars borrowed by the federal government this year will end up costing the tax payers more than 10 trillion dollars to repay in 170 years. In the President's state of the union speech he mentioned the idea of starting to pay down the debt but to do that the federal government needs to balance the budget and then run surpluses on a regular basis for decades to come. Currently the White House is forecasting huge deficits each year for at least another decade. The White House has yet to offer a plan as to how our debt is going to be repaid.

The President did not think that the debt limit was just a gimick when he was debating the issue back in 2006. He voted not to extend it. No where in the law does it state that it is just a gimick. I do not think that Laws of the United States should be considered to be gimicks.

I agree that budgets do not really control spending. The federal government has been without a budget for years because, despite the law, the senate has been failing to pass one. Budget or no budget, government spending has been out of control. The President is the countries chief executive and is ultimately responsible for the spending of the federal government. The buck stops with the President. Such out of control spending shows a lack of leadership by our President as stated by our President back in 2006.

Perhaps the do NOTHINGS in congress should be reminded too! Your ignorance is unbelievable!

Paul,

Obama has taken a lot more time off than Bush did if you look at days off in first 3 years. Not trying to say the President doesn't deserve a day off but you would probably be smart not to compare Mr. Obama's days off to any other president if you are a supporter.

thunder-2108346:

He isn't a failure. He's fixing failure. Check your recent history.

Must be a new one msnbc hired? If not, then there is a free lunch somewhere for this Lemming.

10.8% unemployment(real figures), gas twice as much as when he was crowned, record people on foodstamps and welfare, more debt added then all the previous presidents together, more czars then russia in their best commie days, a class and race warfare that would make the hewto and tootsies blush, a stack of scandels that are added to everyday and will be shoved up his socialist a$$ for years to come after we fire this piece of dung in 2012!

GOPisex,,,,You have that picture right! You are a clown!!!!

thunder:

First, learn to spell scandal, then get back to me. Second, the clown pick is one none other than your blessed Cowboy Messiah.

Socialist repubs are done in Nov., and I think a lot of them know it.

Will you acknowledge that you are a Fascist Fumducker?