Obama 'vindicated' by UNC, calls to thank

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama wasn't going out on much of a limb, some say, when he picked the University of North Carolina to win the men's NCAA basketball championship.

But he did go out of his way to congratulate UNC coach Roy Williams on the team's victory.

The president placed a phone call to the coach from Air Force One last night, as Obama was returning from his surprise stop in Baghdad at the end of an eight-day tour of Europe - the president didn't get in to Andrews Air Force Base until 2:30 am EDT this morning. (The coach is pictured with his trophy Monday in an AP photo by Gerry Broome.)

"The president offered Coach Williams his congratulations and thanked him and his team for vindicating him in front of the entire country,'' said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. "The president told him he'd done a great job and asked the coach to tell the players how proud he was of them and that he looked forward to seeing them at the White House soon."

Now Obama did well with UNC, considering that the president had gotten the other three of the NCAA's "final four'' wrong in the brackets that he filled out before the series in an on-air episode for ESPN.

Our colleague, Jim Oliphant, had noted that there were "very few surprises'' in the president's overall picks. "Obama is not a risk-taker,'' he wrote of the picks. "The Cinderella candidate has chosen no Cinderella teams...

"In his defense, his championship pick, North Carolina, is a bit of a stretch, since the health of its star player, Ty Lawson, is uncertain,'' Oliphant added - and don't we love to see our own words coming back at us. "Obama may have to dispatch Rahm Emanuel to Detroit to make sure his choice is implemented, Tonya Harding-style.''

But in the final analysis, Michigan State's men never really threatened UNC's claim to the title, getting no closer than a 13-point deficit Monday before North Carolina carried the championship, 89-72.(Though we're not sure how the celebration of the Tarheels pictured above ended, in the photo by Chris Keane / Getty Images.)