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Four More Years... Of A Very Athletic President

I know, I know. He's Muslim. He's left-handed. And the deficit, my God that deficit.

But the really important takeaway from last night's Presidential election is that we've voted for 4 more years of an athletic, sports-minded guy in The White House.

Barack Obama loves sports. He'll continue to fill out a March Madness bracket. And, with all due respect to Abraham Lincoln and his apparent sport of hunting vampires and to Paul Ryan and his "whim" of going off a running marathons, we've got the right guy to keep our games at the top of the country's agenda.

In an oval office that sorta recently has seen Jimmy Carter faint while jogging, Bill Clinton tear up a knee falling down some steps at golfer Greg Norman's house and Dubya Bush choke on a pretzel, Obama seems a relative Jim Thorpe. His personal assistant Reggie Love, for crying out loud, played college ball at Duke.

Obama is a White Sox fan who threw out the first pitch in Chicago before Game 2 of the '05 ALCS. He led Occidental College's basketball team in scoring. He once played against North Carolina All-American Tyler Hansbrough and ESPN's Stuart Scott and can, for some reason, identify former Celtics' towel-waver M.L. Carr. He can drain 3-pointers, even playing on Election Day. He's been on HBO's Real Sports. Dude even has his own signature sneaker.

Though it's difficult to trust a man who once bowled 37, Obama is one of the most athletic presidents in U.S. history.

10. George W. Bush - His first-pitch strike – in a bullet-proof vest – before Game 1 of '01 World Series at Yankee Stadium remains the best sports moment ever for a U.S. President.

9. Woodrow Wilson - Played center field for Davidson College.

8. Richard Nixon - Scrappy linebacker at tiny Whittier College.

7. Jimmy Carter - Played baseball and ran cross country at Navy.

6. Ronald Reagan - Played football at Eureka College and portrayed "The Gipper" in Knute Rockne.

5. Teddy Roosevelt - Boxed at Harvard and played tennis on the White House front lawn.

4. George H. Bush - Left-handed first baseman led Yale to baseball's College World Series in '48.

3. Dwight Eisenhower - A linebacker/running back at Army, the "Kansas Cyclone" hurt a knee tackling Jim Thorpe in 1912.

2. Barack Obama - Lanky lefty led Occidental College's basketball team in scoring in '79.

1. Gerald Ford - All-American center led Michigan's football team to National Championship in '33.

(© Copyright 2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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