I was having dinner at Klondike Kate’s tonight where a combo was playing and getting polite applause after each song. It was all very chill until the singer sang the first few notes of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and a cheer went up. To me it was pretty obvious that the crowd was cheering for the President. It was a neat little moment. Anyway, turns out…Al Green is a threat to the American way of life.
Gary Silverman makes a remarkable catch. He asks why the Romney counter-attack on the “America the Beautiful” ad featured Obama singing Al Green, and pretty well too. Well, it turns out that this is how the other .01% think:
One of the better answers I have found comes from a well-known supporter of Mr Romney – Suzy Welch, former editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review, and wife of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. In an appearance on CNN with her husband, Mrs Welch suggested that Mr Obama’s personal style and choice of musical material define him as a member of a “different America”. I would imagine this is why Mr Romney’s campaign included the snippet of Mr Obama singing “Let’s Stay Together” at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They hoped it would convey his otherness.
“It’s the difference between the songs that they’re singing,” Mrs Welch said. “Mitt Romney didn’t exactly do a beautiful job on that song, but think about what he’s singing, OK? I mean it’s that patriotic song and he goes all the way through it. Then you’ve got the very cool Barack Obama singing Al Green. That is the two different Americas. Isn’t it?”
How “other” is Al Green? So other, so alien, that, well, he’s included on the Muzak they play in Red Lobster restaurants.
Somebody is alien and out of touch with America here, that’s for sure. But I don’t think it’s the president.