Obama catches Lin-sanity: ‘He is very impressed’ by Jeremy Lin, White House says

The diagnosis is in: President Barack Obama has caught Lin-sanity.

Jeremy Lin's latest electrifying performance for the New York Knicks--sinking a three-pointer to put the Knicks over the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night--was the talk of Obama's Marine One helicopter on Wednesday morning.

Obama "is an avid sports fan, and a particularly avid basketball fan, and we were speaking about Jeremy Lin on Marine One as we flew to Andrews Air Force Base this morning," Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One as the president headed to Wisconsin to talk about manufacturing (and then is scheduled to go to California to scoop up campaign cash). "He is very impressed."

"If anybody caught the highlights from last night, they were pretty breathtaking. It's just a great story and the president was saying as much this morning," Carney said.

"It's, obviously, terrific for the New York Knicks. But it's the kind of sports story that transcends the sport itself," Carney said. "I got my wife to watch the highlights this morning. She was pretty amazed, and she doesn't watch basketball."

Lin, a Harvard economics graduate who says "God's fingerprints" are on his success, has become a media sensation in the United States and overseas.

Olivier Knox is the White House correspondent for Yahoo News.

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