At his Maryland getaway, the president played basketball and bowled. Obama, who was chided during the campaign for his unimpressive bowling skills, bowled a 144 over the weekend, Gibbs said, a marked improvement from the 37 and gutter balls Obama rolled as a presidential candidate in March 2008 in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

'I watched ..... the last four throws; three strikes and a nine,' Gibbs said. 'I told the president, 'Look, if you had done this in Pennsylvania, my life would have been a little easier.'.'

This year's birthday celebration will almost certainly pale in comparison to last year's, when 850 people joined him at a fundraiser in Boston, the Post said. Obama, a White Sox fan, was given a Boston Red Sox-themed Hawaiian shirt, and he later passed out slices of birthday cake to more than three dozen journalists travelling with him.