Well, technically no: Your Gaggler officially blows at basketball. But, Mr. President, we’ll take you at skee ball anyday. Here’s video of Obama shooting hoops earlier this week at the White House with the UConn Lady Huskies, who won the NCAA national championship a few weeks ago. And, yes, viewers, you are seeing it correctly: Obama sinks every basket.

John Dickerson has an interesting piece over at Slate talking about the odd position President Obama finds himself in when he praises a Republican only to have other Democrats go after him (or her). The example he uses is Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida, whom Obama praised earlier this year for standing up to his party and supporting the stimulus package. Crist, who is considering a U.S. Senate run, is now being attacked by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as a spineless politician who runs when problems get tough.  So who is he: A guy who rises above politics to do the right thing or an opportunistic politician?

This is a quandary that faces almost every president. You arrive in Washington and try to woo members of the opposite party, but the lawmakers most likely to work with you are moderates who happen to be on the target list for one of the political party committees. It’s super awkward, as George W. Bush learned plenty when he would invite Blue Dog Democrats to the White House to discuss common goals, like military issues, only to campaign against them a few weeks later on behalf of the GOP.

But this could be more of a problem for Obama, since he made the idea of rising above politics as usual in Washington a pinnacle of his campaign.

Our favorite nuggets this morning from all over the web:

Let the guessing games begin
The coming weeks will bring lots of speculation over who might be tapped by Barack Obama to fill the court seat vacated by David Souter. By our measure, the Associated Press has the first list, and thinks it'll probably be a woman. (AP)

Opinions hard to capture from military
The military's 'don't ask don't tell' policy on homosexual members could be on the verge of change. But opinions on it among members of the armed forces have always been mixed, and quite hard to capture. (NY Times)

Obama's EPA putting the breaks on approved energy projects
To the thrill of environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency has been halting permits for projects -- many of them related to fossil fuel energy production -- that the Bush Administration had formerly green lighted. (Washington Times)

British troops call it quits
Six years into the war in Iraq, British troops ended combat operations this week in the country, handing over control of Basra to U.S. forces, rather than the Iraqi Army. The opposition leader to Prime Minister Gordon Brown vows that an investigation into Britain's involvement will follow. (The Guardian)

Military using 'friend' as a verb
Economic downturns have always been good for military recruitment. Now, the army in particular is finding social networks like Facebook to be key tools in spreading the military's message. Oh, and the Air Force Twitters too. (AP)