On 48th Birthday, President Obama Has Cupcakes, Mountain Named After Him

August 5, 2009 9:33 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President Barack Obama marked his 48th birthday on Tuesday with a full plate of meetings at the White House, and a luncheon with Democrats that also served as a final powwow on a healthcare reform bill before lawmakers take a month-long recess. In between, the President blew candles along with veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas, who turned 89 that day, and had a mountain in the Caribbeans named after him.

The nation's fifth youngest commander-in-chief, Obama on his first birthday at the White House made a surprise visit to the James Brady Briefing Room with a plate of cupcakes and singing "Happy Birthday" for Thomas. He was joined by an excited press corps that could not help but greet and ask him mid-song about his own birthday.

The President sat beside Thomas, a strident critic of former President George W. Bush who has covered the White House since John F. Kennedy, and asked her to make a wish and blow out the candle on one cupcake. Asked what he wished for his birthday, Obama answered, "Helen wished for world peace, no prejudice. But she and I also had a common birthday wish -- she said she wishes for a real healthcare reform bill."

Around the same time in the Caribbean Sea, Prime Minister W. Baldwin Spencer followed through with a pledge last year and named Antigua and Barbuda's highest peak "Mount Obama."

The President also got a call from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who along with birthday wishes re-affirmed his commitment to complete negotiations about reducing nuclear stockpiles and replacing a Cold War era treaty that is set to expire this year.