The marathon Democratic primary means stressed out candidates—so how do they relax? In the case of Democratic frontrunner Senator Barack Obama it seems as though board games are his choice for a break. This evening on a flight from Washington, DC to Portland, Oregon Obama was challenged to a game of Taboo. The game pits teams against each other to guess different words, but players are forbidden to say certain clues. Instead, teams have to describe the word to elicit a response out of their team members. The game is something the press corps has picked up on recently to endure the long flights.

The game got competitive pitting the press versus Obama and his staffers. At one point a reporter standing next to Obama gave the clue, “This is where Senator Obama said his bitter comments.” The answer: California. Obama chuckled, “I came back here to get away from this.” There were other light campaign related moments–when one clue was “White House” a reporter glanced at the senator and said, “Barack wants to live there,” which was quickly followed up with an, “Excuse me, Senator.” Another member of the press shouted out that Senator Obama wants to take over this man’s job. The answer: George W. Bush.

Another crucial rule of Taboo are the lists of words you cannot say on the back of the game card. If a player messes up a watcher from the opposing team hits a buzzer. Obama joked with his buzzer rival from the press not to buzz him and if she did she would be forbidden access. The whimsical threat didn’t stop her from buzzing him several times.

There were also some answers that raised a few eyebrows. When the press guessed the clue “Menopause” Obama let out a “Wooooo.” In another round, one staffer gave the clue of where a Gay person shops. Senator Obama guessed “Abercrombie and Fitch,” but the staff member was trying to get his team to say “Gap.” Another answer was Playboy’s Hugh Hefner, which communications director Robert Gibbs guessed after the clues of, “His daughter supports the senator” and “He is often wearing a bathrobe.”

When it was Obama’s turn he got the word, “Revolution.” His hint: “This is something Thomas Jefferson called for every now and then.” He then added that clue may be “too obscure” and changed his hint to a Beatles song. His team quickly nabbed the point. The answer that Obama struggled with the most was “Cockatoo.” He described it as having colorful plumage and mimicking the sound of a human, but the closest his staff got was parrot. He later added, “Cockatoo killed us!”

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