Washington (CNN) - While the first lady and daughters Malia and Sasha were away this weekend, President Barack Obama has been enjoying what some have jokingly referred to as a bachelor's weekend with friends - golfing, playing basketball and grilling out on the South Lawn.
The festivities are all part of a belated birthday celebration of sorts for the president, who turned 49 on Wednesday.
First lady Michelle Obama and youngest daughter Sasha, 9, were on vacation in Spain, while 12-year-old Malia is attending camp.
Friends from Hawaii, Chicago, Illinois, and college joined the president on Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf.
The sports outings continued Sunday with a basketball game at Fort McNair where Obama - along with such NBA stars as LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Grant Hill and Earvin "Magic" Johnson - played in front of an audience of wounded servicemen and participants in the White House mentoring program.
Obama was scheduled to return to the White House Sunday evening with friends and some of the basketball players for a seafood barbecue on the South Lawn.
Updated: 6:37 p.m.
From CNN Politics
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Happy 49th!
Where were the white basketball players? I thought he was post racial. As it turns out, Obummie is the MOST racial president we've ever had.
This guy doesn't have a clue, he is the worst thing to happen to the Untied States. Increasing the size and cost of an inefficient government after the "great Recession" was the most un-American thing to do. He will be known as "the Great Mistake" after his time in office which will end in 2012. No thanks, we have seen enough......
I wish he was a little bit more concerned about all the folks out there struggling to make ends meet as he seems to be playing golf and shooting hoops with the stars.
That's a fantatic weekend. Keep him away from getting new policies out and we will all be better off.
The Obama Regime is a complete joke. This unqualified radical has absolutely no clue what he is doing. He should have stuck to organizing ghetto kickball games in his crime ridden Chicago community rather than become President where leadership skills are required to succeed (he has none). Thank god (Libs hate any reference to god) November is less than 100 days away. A huge chunk of "The Regime" will be added to the 9.5% unemployment line (its actually higher) and the American Taliban Liberal Party aka The Democrats will no longer control Congress. Obummer will be the quickest Pres. to reach lame duck status. After that Obama will be lucky to even make it to the 2012 election (he may be impeached first or just physically removed due to the coming revolution). OBAMA IS A COMPLETE JOKE
Good – he's worked 7 days a week with only a few exceptions, and he deserves some fun.
Happy 49th President Obama !!! Enjoy.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Predisent......................and many more!
Great the U.S. Economy is in the tank so to speak..With a huge Multi Trillion dollar Federal Deficit........We have two wars going on. The Gulf of Mexico has been badly damaged by big oil...The Iranians are on the Verge of a Nuclear weapons....and this guy is playing basketball with his buddies......Yeah that the change in D.C. I did not need!!!! So why is the media not criticizing Obama.......If it was he predecessor he would be getting up and down the road about this!!!!1
Good for you Mr. President.
I hope your friends were impressed.
President Obama is a good man. So it is with his whole family. Glad to see him taking a break from the thankless job of being OUR President. (I really mean that). Come on, all of you who voted for him in 2008. Its been rough and tough since he took office. He has been bustin' butt to deliver. Let's all get together, and deliver a Congress that he can work with in 2010! Consider the alternative if we don't!
Ok all you haters and you will be hating on this one. The President was a b-ball player before a politcian so don't criticize because he enjoys playing the sport he loves. He's REAL unlike many of you out there. He needs to relax from the mess GWB left behind.
Damn... the Oval Office as a Man cave... I like it.
Obama is a decent human being that wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth or a personal trust account. That's why he treats other people with decency. The Repugs. constantly trash him, but he & Bill Clinton REALLY represent the American Dream of making it big on your own skill & hard work; unlike the IMAGINARY world of the Tea Partiers.
Barack Obama is without a doubt the GREATEST President ever! Athletic, sexy, brilliant, great sense of humor, tall handsome and Black.
Good, our President is on a five day drunken party for his birthday, while his wife and daughter are spending taxpayer dollars on a Spain vacation. I wonder what the "unbiased" media would say if George Bush had done this? MEDIA HYPROCRITS!!!!!!
This is news? So what, he's doing what he only knows how to do and that's to hang out in da hood.
What a joke he is! How about spending time with your family instead of your celebrity weekend? I have no problem with him relaxing and having fun, bit it looks like he is just another jock sniffer, with a really nice, and free plane!
According to one count, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush spent more time on "vacation" during their first year than President Obama did. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton spent less time on "vacation."
President Obama has spent all or part of 26 days "on vacation" during his first year as president, according to CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.
Knoller, who has covered every president since Gerald Ford and is known for keeping detailed records on presidential travel, counts the following among President Obama’s "vacations" in 2009:
A four-day holiday weekend in Chicago in February where the president played some basketball and treated First Lady Michelle Obama to a Valentine’s Day dinner date.
An eight-day stay with his family at a rented house on Martha’s Vineyard in August.
A trip out west to the U.S. states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona that combined both business and pleasure. The president held town hall meetings on health care during the trip. And he went fly fishing and took trips to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon with his wife and two daughters.
An 11-day stay in Hawaii where the president and his family celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
President George W. Bush spent even more time away from the presidential mansion in the nation’s capital than Reagan. Of the 77 total "vacation" trips the former president made to his Texas ranch while in office, nine of them — all or part of 69 days — came during his first year as president in 2001, according to Knoller.
Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, spent less time "on vacation" during his first year than his son, but spent more days than President Obama. According to travel records provided to FactCheck.org by the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the former president took six trips — spanning all or part of 40 days — to the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1989. The archivist at Bush’s presidential library told us she didn’t have a list of all vacations but did have the Kennebunkport visits.
Just one big party one after another for Obama. Never mind that 91/2% of people are out of work up from 7.2% under Bush. Oh never mind that's Bush's fault time for another party.
So nice that he can associate with his "Buds"! and not a white guy in the bunch too! Is this Racist?
Mr. Obama cares nothing about the American Taxpayer. The federal government has grown 25% since he has taken office. America is circling the drain. Vote his ass out of office.
Obama can truly relate to the average man.
Don't worry, Obozo! We will all celibrate when you convicted of impeechable offenses in a few months; extradited to whereever you came from, repeal all those Communist programs that you and the Democreeps put into motion!!! THAT WOULD BE THE CHANGE WE ALL NEED!!!!
Obama has become the vacationer-in-chief . Does he ever put in a full day at the office ?