Obama tries to show some R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Washington (CNN) - President Obama celebrated the music that shaped "our American story" with some of the biggest female music legends Thursday night at the White House but came up a little lacking when he tried to show his R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
The White House welcomed the performances by American musical icons Aretha Franklin, Melissa Etheridge, and Patti Labelle as well as contemporary female artists Ariana Grande, Janelle Monae, and Jill Scott.
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While the President was paying tribute to Aretha Franklin, he had a hard time with the spelling of a word famously spelled out in one of her best known songs.
"When Aretha first told us what R-S-P-E-C-T meant to her, she had no idea it would become a rallying cry for African Americans, and women, and then everyone who felt marginalized because of what they looked like or who they loved," Obama said to chuckles from the audience.
The spelling error did not bring down the energy of the night as Patti LaBelle kicked off the performances with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," bringing the President and First Lady to their feet.
The "Women of Soul" event was part of the "In Performance at the White House" series that has honored the likes of Stevie Wonder, Sir Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Let's just hope that if the President ever welcomes the Village People that he practices his Y-M-C-A.
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Imagine if Bush did this, he would be ridiculed to no end. Remember Marco Rubio drinking water during his response to the 2013 State of the Union address. All he did was take a couple drinks of water during a speech and it basically took him out of contention for being the republican nominee. I'm not a die hard republican but it's hard not to see the bias....
He is suffering from a case of bushnitis.
There must not be anything important going on in Ukraine/Crimea, Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, etc...
At least he knows what the word means and how to use it in his life
Almost as bad as "naval corpseman". This guy is a dolt.
Not as bad as Mitt Romney's "amercia"
In the meantime, the Ukraine/Crimea, Russia, China, etc, etc, are falling apart. This guy just doesn't get it.... He should go back to what he does best-GOLF.
funny news.
Meh.....we all get a little tongue tied now and then. At least he doesn't use his teleprompters like he used to.
Oh, it's ok because Obama made a mistake. Could you imagine if it was George Bush. The media would be running the story every five minutes for weeks to show how dumb he was. But this man can do anything he wants including destroying our country and people go on eating their big macs and not paying any attention to what's going on in America.
Yep, flashback of Dan Quayle. I'd be more inclined to give Obama a break if the Dems hadn't made such a spectacle out of Dan. In truth, these guys are focusing not only on the words they're saying, but how they say it, their demeanor, and all the other non vocal cues in addition to what is coming out of their mouths.
Now if CNN had some guts they'd put a headline "Obama is dumber than Quayle!"
Barbra, c'mon. Bush was ridiculed because he did this sort of thing over and over... and Obama is/will be ridiculed by this as well. In this particular case, the song lends itself to the misspelling because of how you sing it. It's a common mistake but still a funny one for the President to make.
As for Marco Rubio, you kidding? Remember Howard Dean's "scream". The guy was ridiculed and basically lost the Dem nomination because of it.
Considering why this song was written and what it has come to represent over the years and decades...Obama showing disregard for this is a real war on women.
@ Dominican mama: "Happy Friday my friend."
Happy Friday to you as well ... ! We are headed for a balmy 47 degrees. I'm so looking forward to it.
Glass houses. The author of this article uses the wrong word in the paragraph
"While the President was paying tribute to Aretha Franklin, he had a hard timing with the spelling of a word famously spelled out in one of her best known songs."
the word timing should be time. Spell check Genius!
"RESPECT" is an Otis Redding song, Aretha Franklin's version is merely a cover of it. How about some mention of that? It's the musical equivalent of the time Bill Clinton called the Democratic party the "Party of Jefferson". It isn't. Andrew Jackson was the party's founder.
That's because he has no idea of how to give respect to anyone.
Well the rest of us knew he was an idiot.
I'll take anything after Dubya butchered the English language for 8 years
Why are people saying there's media bias in this story when they're reporting it just like every other political gaffe? Heck, it's front page news and pretty eye catching with how they spelled respect. I guess the fact that CNN is talking about Crimea instead of this gaffe on their live TV feed is a mortal sin though...
Bias? That's funny. Go check out Faux News and their "Bias Alerts" they put out occasionally. Faux News is hilarious!
Lucius, yes, OBVIOUSLY you will take anything if you'll keep making excuses for this failure!
"While the President was paying tribute to Aretha Franklin, he had a hard timing with the spelling of a word famously spelled out in one of her best known songs."
He had a hard "timing"? Oh, the irony . . .
An Affirmative Action Education does not require any base competency.
Republican Dan Quayle once used the archaic spelling for "potatoe," and the mainstream press ridiculed him for weeks on end. Yet Democrat Obama gets a pass. Nope ... no media bias here folks. Nothing to see. Just move along.