The Democratic presidential candidate played basketball Wednesday with soldiers from Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., before delivering a speech on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.
Then, during his short flight from Fayetteville to Charlotte, Obama began working on his NCAA basketball tournament bracket. The campaign staff is competing in a $10 per person pool. When the plane landed, an aide asked whom Obama was supporting. The senator joked that his was a scientific process and he could not be rushed into making his picks.
The tournament gets under way in earnest on Thursday.
Intent on being part of March Madness, Republican rival John McCain has an NCAA bracket competition on his campaign Web site.
"McCain brackets are back!" the site says. "Compare your basketball picks to John McCain and be eligible for great McCain 2008 prizes."
Among the prizes are a McCain fleece jacket, McCain cap and McCain pin.
