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President Obama Throws Country Bash

For 70 years, country stars have been honored with invitations to perform for the president at the White House. The Coon Creek Girls did it first, in 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office. And next month, President Barack Obama will host a show devoted to country music. The president, whose inauguration activities featured performances by Garth Brooks, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, has hosted other events in which country artists such as Martina McBride, Billy Ray Cyrus and Mark Wills have participated.

According to GAC, the event will take place July 21, although details regarding which artists will participated have yet to be released. The country-music event is part of President Obama's mission to embrace the whole of American culture.

"The President wants the White House to be a stage," the administration's social secretary, Desiree Rogers, told The New York Daily News. "We want Americans feeling they're part of the house."

Among other country artists who have interacted with the commander-in-chief throughout are Rodney Atkins, who performed 'If You're Going Through Hell (Before The Devil Even Knows)' for George W. Bush during National Adoption Month; Dolly Parton, who received the National Medal of Arts from Bush; Jimmy Buffett, who sang for Bill Clinton on his birthday; and Kenny Chesney who sang the national anthem for a tee ball game on the White House lawn in July 2008.

A couple of country acts whose White House visits were memorable for other reasons include Willie Nelson, who smoked marijuana on the White House roof while visiting Jimmy Carter and family, and Johnny Cash, who refused a request from Richard Nixon to sing Merle Haggard's 'Okie From Muskogee,' performing an anti-Vietnam War tune called 'What Is Truth' instead.

And while the White House had featured many captive audiences through the years, it also had a captive performer in country-pop legend Eddy Arnold, who got trapped in an elevator a dinner hosted by the wife of President Lyndon Johnson.

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Karen!

I understand that past Presidents threw parties and went on extended vacations- got that. But I thought Obama was going to bring change?

I have yet to see any bit of change and I'm not holding my breath until 2012. Let's just remember there are elections coming up next year that allow us to get these money grubbing politicians out of office!

July 01 2009 at 2:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CNS

Interesting.

July 01 2009 at 9:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CNS

Interesting.

June 30 2009 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
z9paul

But here is the biggest shocker, after an intense f**k up, believe it or not, it takes a while to clear up...amazing concept I know quality...............Your condescension aside, your logic leaves a great deal to account for. FDR delayed economic recovery by spending private sector money on government "works" projects. Japan did the same thing in the 90's and delayed their recovery from a recession. Obama has just "corrected" the Bush deficit of 2.4 trillion by spending 12 trillion dollars that he doesn't have. So, no, black or white, he's an devious sneak who uses his position to give political pay-back and the expense of the economy. (Check out the Chrysler and GM bail-outs that ingored retirement fund investors in favor of the UAW) So, yes, he's the president. No, he's not the first president, but he's doing a great job of being Jimmy Carter's second term - and Jimmy's policies led to double digit inflation, employment and interest rates. Get ready for stagnation, comrades.
http://www.web-link.eu

June 30 2009 at 6:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
torii

I just feel so bad for the Obama's--they never had enough money to fly to Hawaii, or a European vacation (and to send his mother-in-law as well) or a trip to NY to attend a Broadway play or throw lavish parties or hire artists to surprise his kids or to support his mother-in-law to live with them UNTIL NOW!!! Someone else will have to pay for the extravagance of this family--and yes it is us.

June 29 2009 at 12:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JoJo

I've been reading comments at the Washington Post about the Cap and Trade bill that passed (let's hope that the Senate has the SENSE to vote it down) but anyway, people are so ticked off by the way Congress and the White House have been acting that some are saying that they are going to get a referendum for RECALLS on Congress members that are kissing Obama's ring and selling this country down the drain.

June 28 2009 at 10:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ray

I say enough is enough, Obama is tearing this country apart in little pieces by his massive spending, all his Czars and making decisions without thing about the consequences of his actions. We will be losing more and more jobs with this so called energy bill. If he was so worried about energy he would let us drill for oil here and also build more nuclear power plants, that way the jobs are guaranteed to stay here

June 28 2009 at 9:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wilma Kaye

I say throw the bum out

June 28 2009 at 9:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jestr424

*Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse*
by Thomas E. Woods (written by economist and his group who foresaw this mess)

&

*Housing Boom and Bust* by Thomas Sowell (an economist and author, who happens to be black and considers himself more libertarian, -it's not the same as liberal-, than conservative and generally advocates a free market approach to capitalism)

He shows how both Democrats and Republicans ruined both the housing markets and the financial markets, and how
like so many other disasters, the current economic crisis grew out of policies based on good intentions and mushy thinking.

June 28 2009 at 9:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jestr424

Yeah, George Soros and other people are supporting the Dems because they know they can make millions on betting on our country failing. Not to mention the ones that made money off of Fannie and Freddie. Not to mention the dirty chicago type of politics going on in Washington with back door deals.

They have already, and continue doing it.

We are making old white men rich by making the poor and minorities poorer using the Democratic Party voted in by the some of the poor, minorities, and guilty white liberals who think they care about people and that Dem. party actually helps instead of make problems worse.

June 28 2009 at 9:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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