海角大神

President Obama sang an Al Green song at a fundraiser Thursday night, in case you haven鈥檛 heard. Well, 鈥渟ang a song鈥� might be exaggerating 鈥� he crooned a few words, really. He was standing on stage at the Apollo Theater in New York thanking folks for coming when he swiveled into the Green classic 鈥淟et鈥檚 Stay Together.鈥�

鈥淎hhhhm ... so in love with you,鈥� went the leader of what used to be called the Free World.

Then he grinned and said, 鈥淭hose guys didn鈥檛 think I would do it.鈥�

He did not specify who 鈥渢hose guys鈥� were, at least not on the video made public so far. Perhaps he was referring to Spike Lee and his wife, who earlier in the evening had hosted a dinner for Obama and donors willing to part with upwards of $35,000 per ticket in order to get close to the president.

How did he do? He sounded good, but the sample size was small, only a line or two. We鈥檒l say this: he鈥檚 no Herman Cain. Now there鈥檚 a (former) presidential aspirant with pipes! Here鈥檚 a Cain performance from the National Press Club last fall.

Now comes the fun part: we pretend to overanalyze the political implications of this act in order to suck out its spontaneity and refill it with the sawdust stuffing of punditry. 聽

Clearly, Obama was trying to send a message to his base with his choice of song. A fundraiser? The song, 鈥淟et鈥檚 Stay Together?鈥� He鈥檚 pleading with his core liberal supporters to remain faithful and energized in the coming election even though he has not delivered all they want.

Yet this approach shows his political weakness. It was cool, analytic, and not passionate enough. Why didn鈥檛 he make a more forceful choice, such as Green鈥檚 鈥淵ou Ought to Be With Me?鈥� That would have showed more fire in the belly for the coming campaign. Come to think of it, he could have sung Green鈥檚 鈥淔ull of Fire.鈥� That would have gotten the message across.

What will the GOP do? By not finishing a lyric, Obama has opened himself to criticism that he is unable to complete important tasks, such as reviving the economy. Whoever the Republican nominee is they may well exploit this weakness in the fall.

Remember, we鈥檙e making this up 鈥� don鈥檛 send us emails about how we鈥檙e living up to Newt Gingrich鈥檚 vision of the news media. If you鈥檝e got other suggestions for songs the president should have tried, please post them in comments. As for ourselves, we鈥檝e gone about as far with this as Pundit Association guidelines allow. Enjoy the show.