Amen to that, Toni! Me too, and yes, he is. What a megawatt smile he's got, as well! I'm SO tired of people ragging on the Big O. He's made some mistakes, and also done a lot of good. After 8 years of Dubya the Dummyhead, what a thrill it is to have a prez with an intellect who can actually frame a coherent sentence, and doesn't embarrass us to foreign countries (or for that matter, to ourselves) every time he opens his mouth!! Prez O will come into his own in his second term, I feel. His naturally contemplative, professorial, detail-oriented self, and his tendency to be diplomatic when possible, get him accusations of not being decisive enough. Maybe sometimes he's not. But he's a good guy, and I trust his integrity. I still look for great things from him. Lincoln was heavily criticized too in his day, and now is many people's fave president! Go, Obama!! :-)

I think he's already coming into his own, Laurie - and I would defy anyone to name a president who hasn't made mistakes. Obama has disappointed me with some of his decisions, thrilled me with others....but the bottom line remains the same for me - this is a man who I believe "gets it".

To be honest, even if I didn't like Obama, I could never vote for one of the Republican candidates - they have failed economic ideas (make the rich richer and eventually it will trickle down to the rest of us has been proven so-o-o not to work)... and I really don't need them to cram their archaic brand of morality down my throat. So I'm delighted than a man who seems to understand my values is in the White House.

And hey, the fact that he can get down musically doesn't hurt either.

Were there performance excerpts online and on CNN, etc., then? Where did everybody see or hear about this? And what's all this about being blue in Chicago?? There's some fine blues that's come outta there, for sure, but for me, the meanest, baddest, saddest, "lowdownest" blues, as such, was from quite a bit further south. True enough that the blues in the broader sense are universal, though. In old Britain and America, for example, they were called laments.

Say what? Did they disappear off the board? Wha' happened??

I saw it on the news here in the UK, IMPRESSED

I figure there is some vast right wing conspiracy afoot Laurie! Seriously, they did disappear from the Board - not at all sure how - but as they were in my email inbox, I just re-posted them.

Yeah!

Agreed with ALL the below, Tone. I should have said Obama'll come even *more* into his own in his second term. Frankly, I think he came into his own on the victory stage on Election Night 2008, and in front of the US Capitol on Inauguration Day 2009. I was thrilled. I had so much hope. I'm trying to hang onto it despite the monumental mess our country is in. The honeymoon of this historic presidency is over, but we've all gotta keep that hope alive.

Uh-oh, don't laugh! Maybe Big Brother GOP has finally figured out what a hotbed of leftwing conspiracy and subversion the Alvin message board really is!!! :-)

Well...now that you're back and I have an ally(hooray for left wing conspiracy and subversion!!)....

Saw this clever slogan the other day:

Repeal the 20th Century. Vote GOP.

OMG(oddess)!! I love it! I've seen that one somewhere, too, come to think of it. And yessss! Hooray for leftwing conspiracy and subversion! We simply CAN'T have Santorum, Romney, or Gingrich in office. The thought is too mind-boggling. It's not just that I disagree with them. I don't respect a one of 'em. The crazy stuff they've all been spewing about Obama "declaring war" on the Catholic Church, on religion itself, etc., etc., just blows my little brain. I'm also sick and tired of many rightwinger fundamentalist Xians co-opting the Founding Fathers, some of whom, like Jefferson, disputed the divinity of Jesus, and many of whom belonged to that "Satanic" (according to Pope B16, when still Cardinal Ratzinger) bunch, the Freemasons. Speaking of the FF, btw, one of them, President James Monroe, is an ancestor of mine.

I thought the Prez was pretty good - singing "Sweet Home Chicago" wins major cool points in my book - certainly more than Nixon or Truman playing piano!

Mondo cool points would have been awarded if The Prez had taken command of the stage, busted a few moves, and rocked the house with the whole song . . .