Happy Birthday, Mr. President: Obama Turns 48

Aug. 4, 2009— -- A presidential birthday isn't all that bad -- just think Marilyn Monroe crooning "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy. But if President Obama wants to make his 48th birthday today a happy one, he would be advised not to look at photos of how his predecessors aged in office.

Neither the spokesman for the president nor the spokeswoman for the first lady would disclose Monday how the president planned to celebrate his birthday.

The president, however, is scheduled to have lunch with the Senate Democrats to "talk about the priorities that they have, to talk about what has been accomplished in the first 6½ months of the administration," spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Where is lunch? The White House.

Why there? "It's the president's birthday, and Chuck E. Cheese was booked," Gibbs joked.

Gibbs said Obama celebrated with friends over the weekend at Camp David, where he played basketball and bowled.

Basketball, bowling and Chuck E. Cheese may all be part of the president's plan to continue looking hale and youthful -- and, if previous presidents are any indication, a plan is exactly what he needs.

"All the presidents age in office. All you have to do is look at the photos at the beginning of their terms and the end," said presidential historian and ABC News consultant Richard Norton Smith.

"And they all age for pretty much the same reason. It's the nature of the job. It's the demands of the job. It's a 24-hour job. I can't think of another job that carries the same degree of responsibility; and if that's true in peace time, it is exponentially greater in times of war."

If he thought his last birthday was stressful -- stopping on the campaign trail in Michigan, Massachusetts and Ohio -- this year he contends with two wars, a tottering financial system and spiraling health care costs.