At his Georgia town hall meeting, Obama cautioned kids not to drop out of school to pursue a far-fetched dream. Addressing a mostly African American crowd outside Atlanta, Obama joked, “You can’t find a job unless you are a really, really good basketball player. Which most of you brothers are not. I know you think you are. But you’re not. You are overrated in your own mind. You will not play in the NBA. You are probably not that good a rapper. Maybe you are the next Little Wayne, but probably not. In which case you need to stay in school.”

On a roll, Obama then said they’d be much more employable if they know a foreign language, and said we should be emphasizing foreign language study in classrooms. “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup.”

Obama is scheduled to address the League of United Latin American Citizens’ national convention in Washington, DC, this afternoon.

According to Men’s Fitness magazine (out May 19th), Barack Obama is not just the fittest politician in the race for the presidency - he’s one of the nation’s 25 fittest guys.

So you don’t have to wait till next week - here’s the magazine’s reasoning:

“It takes a certain stamina to endure months of 16-hour days in pursuit of the land’s highest office. Obama is not the first politician dedicated to fitness, but the Illinois senator starts every day with a morning workout, whether it’s machines at the hotel gym or a brisk 45-minute run. He’s also quit smoking. Obama can be excused for enjoying the occasional state-fair corn dog because he mostly stays away from fatty foods. He’s also, as we’ve seen, a bit of a baller. Nicknamed “Barry O’Bomber” for his jump shot, the former high school hoopster now releases stress during pickup games—including one on every primary day. “He’s wiry-looking but actually pretty strong,” former Duke player and Obama staffer Reggie Love has said. “And he hates losing.He plays hard.” Now that we know.”

Obama on the move in Indiana

Jacketless and surrounded by staffers, Secret Service, and press, Obama stopped by the home of Andy and Melissa Evers in Union Mills, IN, yesterday – the second time the candidate has made a media event out of visiting an Indiana voter’s home.

A farming family, the Evers welcomed the motley crew onto their property while Obama’s multi-bus motorcaded idled on the sleepy country road in front of their farm. About twenty of the Evers’ neighbors and friends came to mingle with the candidate and to discuss issues like the economy and gas prices while the candidate sat at a picnic table in the backyard - press surrounded the otherwise normal conversation.

After about 25 minutes, Obama announced it was time to leave. One of the neighbors wondered if Obama had the time to shoot some hoops with the Evers’ son, 14-year-old Aaron Villicana. Rolling up his sleeves and heading over to the basketball hoop in the driveway, the always competitive candidate said, “We’ll play a quick game of Pig.”

The game – traditionally referred to as Horse – is played by each participant taking a shot. If the shot is made, the challenger attempts to make the same shot. If that person misses, he is awarded a letter. The first one to spell out the name of the animal, in this case Pig, is the loser.

Obama let Aaron shoot first, noting the kid’s “home court advantage.” Aaron missed. Obama took the ball and said, “Let’s see what I got.” Obama missed. “As an older guy, this dimming light is a disadvantage,” he explained as dusk approached.

Aaron held his own against Obama, who just this week played with the UNC Tarheels - the very same team that was in the NCAA playoffs last month. The score was P-I to P- I and remained such for some time as both Aaron and Obama missed shot after shot after shot. Obama joked, “My shot is broke! We are in Indiana – we’re supposed to be making these.” Indiana is, after all, the Hoosier State.

“We want to make it close and add to the drama,” he said with a smile. Of course everybody observing immediately likened the pickup game to the race for the Democratic nomination. With no end in sight it began drizzling. An audio technician from one of the television networks holding a boom mic finally said what everyone watching was thinking. “Come on, Senator, put it to bed.”

“You know, he’s tough,” Obama replied. “He keeps on coming back. He’s like Hillary!” The spectators all laughed and Obama took another shot. Swish. Aaron missed the shot and the victory was Obama’s. Read into this if you want - or don’t.

It’s become somewhat of a primary day tradition for Barack Obama to play basketball on the campaign trail. He’s taken on staffers, Secret Service agents, troops at Fort Bragg, and even reporters – but, save for the time he played for Real Sports, he’s never played for cameras. Until Indiana – aka the Hoosier state with a May 6th primary election.

Yesterday Barack Obama, played a little half court three-on-three with area students who won the chance to play with the candidate by registering voters - and Alison Bales, a 6’ 7” player for the WNBA. The lanky senator known as “Barry O’Bomber” when he played in high school, kept up with his younger teammates and showed at 46, he’s still got game – although at one point the winded senator joked with medics on hand that they might be needed if he dropped.

Several dozen supporters cheered the T-shirted, gum chewing senator every time he made a good play while his traveling press watched from the far set of bleachers. Obama easily scored four baskets, passed, rebounded, and stole the ball from his opponents a couple of times. He did have two turnovers to help his team to an easy 15-5 victory. If only winning the Democratic nomination were that easy.

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For those wondering - one of his Secret Service agents gave Senator Obama the USMC T-shirt.

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She’s spent the last few days painting herself as the underdog in the race for the Democratic nomination, so it’s no surprise that Hillary Clinton would express her fondness for the little guy toppling the top dog — even if she was just talking about college basketball.

Walking to the back of the press plane to say goodbye to an NBC cameraman who’s taking a much-deserved break after traveling with the campaign so long that she affectionately refers to him as her “stalker,” Sen Clinton jokingly declined to say anything newsworthy because of the lateness of the hour — but she did talk a little hoops, describing her simple, if highly illogical, bracket strategy: “I used to have a rule that i would vote, when I was in the pools, only for small college teams, predominantly Catholic, North of the Mason-Dixon line.”

She says the tournament’s too complicated for her today, though she did display more than a passing knowledge of who’s playing. The two-point defeat of plucky underdog Davidson by powerhouse Kansas in the Elite Eight snuffed out her hope for one of those exciting upsets she says she’s so fond of; it remains to be seen if she can pull off one of her own.

Hillary Clinton may not have filled out an NCAA bracket this year — telling basketball-obsessed reporters on her press plane that she’s just been too busy to follow the sport this year. But she’s certainly kept up enough to know when the tournament trumps politics, as it did at a stop in Winston-Salem, NC.

Running more than an hour behind schedule, Sen Clinton arrived at the event just 30 minutes before the tip-off of the North Carolina Tarheels Sweet Sixteen match-up against Washington State. In hoops-crazed North Carolina, that meant rushing through her speech in record time or risking a mass exodus during her riff on No Child Left Behind. She joked that she hoped to keep her audience until halftime — but made sure to wrap things up expeditiously.

Always one to know her audience, Clinton worked the sports theme into her economic speech in Raleigh as well. Watch her dropping March Madness references below — and try to imagine a young HRC during her days of playing half court basketball in Park Ridge, IL.

As she prepares to go back to Indiana, Sen Clinton can at least be thankful that the bracketology worked out relatively well for her campaign; had the Hoosiers not lost their first game of the tournament (to Bill Clinton’s Arkansas Razorbacks), they would have been matched up against North Carolina — forcing Hillary to face some potentially awkward questions about where her sporting loyalties lie when it comes to the two May 6th states.

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Sen. McCain’s selection of the University of Connecticut Huskies to be in the NCAA Mens Basketball championship game in his bracket caused a few heads to turn last week. UConn, a 4-seed in the West, lost their first round game to 13-seeded University of San Diego.

Asked about the selection today, he quipped, “that just shows why every year I am the laughing stock of everybody in the pool.”

He may still have a shot to earn some points though since he selected the University of North Carolina to win it all. His full bracket can be viewed on his website.

Yesterday on the campaign plane, Barack Obama’s traveling staff was busy filling out NCAA Final Four brackets for a staff pool - no press allowed, per one aide. Each staffer, and the senator, forked over $10 per bracket - the winner taking the undisclosed pot.

Today the campaign announced Mr. Obama’s picks - two of which are schools in states with upcoming primaries.

In the South division, Obama picked fourth-seeded Pittsburgh - Pennsylvania’s primary, of course being on April 22nd. In the East, the senator chose #1 ranked North Carolina, where he hopes to win the state’s primary on May 6th. His other two picks, in the Midwest, Kansas, and in the West, UCLA, were states that went for Obama and Clinton respectively in their contests, held last month.

Today on the campaign trail in West Virginia, Senator Obama headed to a sports bar to mingle with patrons/voters and to eat some chicken wings in front of cameras, of course. “I’m fishing for a few votes around here, you know,” he said to the bar full of mostly male basketball fans. “At least I can show off my basketball knowledge, you know - these are the things I like to do. Sometimes here in this bubble with the press corps around you, you don’t get to talk to people,” he said, cameras rolling.

When ribbed for not picking near-by West Virginia University (ranked #7), Obama joked, “Now that’d be playing politics.”

So who did Obama bet on in the finals? UCLA v. North Carolina. He’s hoping for a Tarheel win on April 7th, after winning in the Tarheel State on May 6th.