He can't bowl, but he can shoot

Barack Obama plays pool Monday at Schultzie's bar in South Charleston, W.V., (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

OK, so Barack Obama can't bowl. That much was established with his dismal performance back in Pennsylvania. But apparently he's not a bad pool player, as he proved today at Schultzie's, a dimly lit pool hall in South Charleston, W.V.

Obama, according to a media pool report, arrived in rolled-up shirt sleeves. "We heard there were pool tables and chips and salsa," he said. He drank lemon lime soda from a straw and introduced the retired military officers with him: former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig; John Nathman, a former Navy four-star admiral; and Jim Smith, a former Air Force brigadier general.

"I can't vouch for their pool playing, but they’re good guys," Obama said.

"We can bowl," Nathman shot back, to laughs. Obama lamented the attention he knew would be paid to his skills. "There's pressure involved in everything I do," he said.

Obama played Paul Scott, 24, who said he served two tours in Iraq. The senator led off with an even break that landed a solid in the corner pocket; he went on to sink two more in a row to cheers from the crowd. "That’s a sign of a misspent youth," he said.

Obama managed to sink more complicated bank shots, even if it wasn't always clear they were the shots he intended. (He was also the subject of a little charity: No one said anything when he accidentally sank the eight ball.) When Obama took a big lead, Scott said, "They told me to let you win."

As he kept landing his shots, he said to a Newsweek photographer, "You didn’t think I could play – you thought it was going to be another bowling outing." Scott edged him on the final ball, but Obama took heart in his performance, saying, "I didn’t embarrass myself."