Then Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a Republican candidate for president in 2000, tries a little body English during a game of candlepin at a campaign stop in Nashua, New Hampshire. Bush wasn’t so accomplished at the New England version of the game (in which the pins are shaped like candles, and the ball is smaller—palm-sized—and has no holes). But he did turn heads with his ability to bowl oranges down the aisle of his campaign plane. “It takes a lot of practice,” he told reporters. “It takes a smooth release, something I didn’t perfect when I was candlepin bowling.” Eric Draper / AP Photo President Richard Nixon bowls in the alley built for him by his friend Bebe Rebozo beneath the Executive Office Building. “I usually bowl at about 10 o’clock at night. When I’m here, I bowl alone,” Nixon once said. “For him, there was an obvious political appeal,” David Greenberg, the author Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image, told The Daily Beast about Nixon’s bowling. “Nixon always styled himself as the champion of the silent majority, regular ordinary hardworking Americans who didn’t get media attention for their views—not the glamorous or stylish people we heard much about. Bowling obviously fit this image quite nicely.” The image of Nixon bowling alone became an iconic one. Everett Collection In the closely contested 2008 U.S. Senate campaign between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, the bowling alley became a site of an advertising battle. Coleman set one television ad at the lanes, where a man in a bowling shirt declared, “If there’s one thing about Norm Coleman, he gets things done.” Franken, the former Saturday Night Live comedian, fired back with his own spoof of the ad. Here, Franken visits a bowling alley near his childhood home in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Jim Mone / AP Photo John Kerry’s windsurfing habit got him in hot water during the 2004 campaign against President George W. Bush. In December 2003, the presidential hopeful visited the Rose Bowl bowling alley in Mason City, Iowa. There, in addition to throwing a few balls, Kerry flexed his everyman muscles. “George Bush went to a nice, fancy high school like I did, but I came out of my fancy high school asking the question, 'Why can't everybody have a school like this?'” Kerry said. Charlie Neibergall / AP Photo Then first lady and U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton bowled at a fundraiser for a New York school in July 2000. During her 2008 campaign against Barack Obama, Clinton used Obama’s now infamous poor bowling skills as a campaign prop. “I’m challenging Senator Obama to a bowl-off,” Clinton said on April Fool’s Day. “A bowling night…The winner take all. I’ll even spot him two frames.” “It’s time for his campaign to get out of the gutter and allow all the pins to be counted,” Clinton said. Beth A. Keiser / AP Photo Vice President Al Gore visited the Oxford Lanes bowling alley in Dearborn, Michigan days before the 2000 presidential election. He threw three frames and scored a 7, 6, and 9, according to an Associated Press account. That final effort left one pin standing. “Oh no,” Gore groaned. “Maybe I could come back every two weeks.” Doug Mills / AP Photo Up against beer baron Pete Coors, Democrat Ken Salazar went bowling in his quest to win Colorado’s open Senate seat in 2004. The moderate Democrat couldn’t seem to keep his balls down the middle. He rolled two frames and both balls swerved left. Salazar now serves as Secretary of the Interior. David Zalubowski / AP Photo The leading contender for the Democratic nomination for president, Walter Mondale, paid a visit to Whitestone Lanes Bowling Alley in Queens, New York in March 1984. His first try was a gutter ball. A local asked what he bowled. “A strike,” Mondale replied. Dave Tenenbaum / AP Photo According to one account, Bill Clinton was an avid junior bowler, averaging 160 (out of 300) a round. In 1993, Clinton returned to his childhood bowling grounds the Central Bowling Lanes in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Clintons and Gores used to hit up the White House lanes as a foursome. Greg Gibson / AP Photo Presidential hopeful Barack Obama roles one of his miserable seven frames at the Pleasant Valley Recreation Center in Altoona, Pennsylvania in March 2008. The candidate rolled a 37 and then made matters worse by telling Jay Leno that his bowling was “like the Special Olympics or something.” The White House has said that Obama’s game is improving. Supposedly, he rolled a 144 at the Camp David bowling alley this past August. Pro bowler Parker Bohn told The Daily Beast that he’d happy to give his fellow southpaw some lessons. “Bowling should not be that tough for him,” Bohn said. Alex Brandon / AP Photo