Who's House? Abe's House!
The above video shows a truly "kick ass" performance of Stevie Wonder's hit "Higher Ground" featuring Usher, Shakira and The Dancing Obamas.
From Fox News:
President-elect Barack Obama said it could take several years for the economy to turn around, news obscured Sunday by an inaugural concert that saw crowds stretched along both sides of the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
The "We Are One" concert marked the start of inaugural celebrations for Obama.
"I won't pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. Along the way there will be setbacks and false starts and days that test our fundamental resolve as a nation," he said.
Convenient use of a celebratory occasion to sober the mood with another dire economic prediction, Mr. Obama. Not to mention, setting your country up for the lowest of expectations. We all feel so much better.
Performers including U2, Beyonce, Garth Brooks, John Mellencamp and Herbie Hancock were on the bill. Brooks said it was well past time that all the different musicians from multiple genres should appear. Organizers said virtually everyone asked to participate agreed to come to Washington for the show.
Bruce Springsteen sang "The Rising" to open the concert with the help of the choir, taking a song best known as a call to action following the 2001 terror attacks and using it to usher in a new era in American politics. The crowd, expected to reach a half-million, gathered in temperatures above the freezing mark. It was a welcome relief from the frigid weather that had gripped the nation's capital.
Earlier in the day on Sunday, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said the size of the crowd at the concert would be the city's first dry run of security and also a good indicator of the audience to arrive on Tuesday for the inauguration.
A "dry run" of security? What does that mean? If anything went wrong organizers could have just said "oops" and go back to the drawing board? Would that be another "hiccup" or "honest mistake".
Actor Denzel Washington, noting the Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson memorials, set the tone at the concert by proclaiming that "on this day, we are inspired by the man we have elected to be the 44th president of the United States."
"We come here knowing that we are all in this together," Washington said. "We are one!"
Another speaker was actor Tom Hanks, who as Forrest Gump famously gave a speech at the monument steps and jumped into the reflecting pool. This time, he appeared in a dark suit and read a somber tribute to Abraham Lincoln.
(HBO will re-air the event Sunday 1/18 at 7 P.M. EST. For the record, the season premiere of "Big Love", the HBO series which follows a Mormon polygamist family airs after the the "We are One" special. Hanks, executive producer of the show, said last week that Mormons were "un-American" for donating money to pass California's controversial Prop 8. Just saying.)
Jamie Foxx brought many in the crowd -- and the Obamas -- to their feet by repeatedly urging those from Chicago to make some noise: "Chi-town, stand up!" he demanded.
Foxx then launched into a quick impersonation of the president-elect.
Hilarity ensued and there was much rejoicing!
Bono gets political, as usual, but U2 still rocks!
USAToday estimated the Obamapalooza crowd at 400,000. The paper also added that Queen Latifah and Tiger Woods read dramatic readings.
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An anonymous and completely unreliable source added that mosh pits may have broken out when Vice President-Elect Biden was announced and saw lots of "crowd surfing freaks, clearly suffering Bush Derangement Syndrome".
The source could not comment on other Obamapalooza festivities, such as The Blago Pay-To-Pay Circus Freakshow or The Zany Antics of Karl The Markist Clown.
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In all seriousness, congratulations to Barack Obama. We applaud the Celebration and all the singers and actors who gathered to warm the hearts of Obama supporters in Washington and around the globe. It really was a great show!
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