Saturday Night Fever

I might be dismayed and disappointed by Obama's walk-backs on Guantanamo, torture, secrecy, Iraq withdrawal and all the other issues on which he's shown something less than political courage. There is one area, however, where Obama is a gust of fresh air: He and Michelle are totally cool. I mean, after Junior and his brush-clearing and Laura's resolute avoidance of anything resembling excitement, the Obamas are shakin' it up, big-time. (NYTimes pool photo: Aude Guerrucci)

Who can not be charmed by the president's date last night with Michelle? Obama is admirably checking off his campaign promises and one promise was dinner and a Broadway show with his wife after the campaign. They took the short flight to New York yesterday afternoon for dinner at Blue Hill in Greenwich Village and a performance of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” at the Belasco Theater. 

First of all, great choices, guys. Blue Hill is a pioneer in the local food movement and well-known for its exquisitely fresh and tasty ingredients. Michelle, as we know, is championing locally-grown, organic food. The Tony-nominated play by August Wilson recounts the experiences of a group of boardinghouse residents in the early 1900s who left sharecropping in the South for cities in the North.

Obama certainly knows how to show his lady a lovely time. Michelle revealed this last week: "You know, after 20-some-odd years of knowing a guy, you forget that your first date was at a museum. But it was, and it was obviously wonderful. It worked." A museum! I love it.

Not everyone is as tickled as I am over the geek glam of our First Couple. The pursed-lip pills in the Republican Party fired off a fresh salvo of monumental political tone-deafness:

The Republican National Committee slammed the outing in an "RNC Research Piece": "As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills. ... Have a great Saturday evening – even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense. ... PUTTING ON A SHOW: Obamas Wing Into The City For An Evening Out While Another Iconic American Company Prepares For Bankruptcy."

The RNC's Gail Gitcho added: "If President Obama wants to go to the theater, isn’t the Presidential box at the Kennedy Center good enough?”

Hmm, let's see: We're supposed to express high dudgeon over a charming date that gives a very hard-working guy a break with his wife. Oh, that's right -- the guy is a Democratic president. The most recent Republican president could jet off to the pig farm in the middle of Nowheresville, Texas for more R&R time -- 384 days -- than any other president and citizens should applaud his manly man, cowboy, brush-clearin' everyman act. Forget that all those getaways were at "taxpayer expense," not to mention the fact that we paid the slacker for eight years and he spent more than a year of that time kicking back at the "ranch".

The Repugs got nothing. If they think they're going to get any traction over the Obamas' date night, the real question is which is greater -- their stupidity or their desperation? Sing along with me, boys:

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody.
I got some money 'cause I just got paid.
How I wish I had someone to love me.
I'm in an awful way.