The White House Poetry Jam

HOW NICE!  Nice to read the reports on the White House Poetry Jam after eight years of a lackluster  response to the arts as cold as the Eve of St. Agnes. The "jam" brought together the President, Michelle, some national artists and students from nearby universities for poetry readings and music.  The event, Obama said, was to "celebrate power of words and music to  help appreciate beauty and also to understand pain."

Sooner or later we may expect to hear from Limbaugh and Hannity with some hissing disgust that a president would be fooling around with the arts when he should be giving bonuses to CEOs and bombing Kabul.   Will they refer to the president  not as a socialist but rather as a Marred Bard?  Will they accuse him of inviting a jazz musician to the session to mislead the public into thinking he was an upbeat leader?   Will they accuse him of ignoring  America's greeting card poets  whose jobs are vanishing with the rise of e-mail?

OK, so I'm having a little fun today.  But that should not distract us from acknowledging a president who is putting in a good word for the arts.  Bill Clinton's saxophone notswithstanding, we can go all the way back to President Kennedy  to find such a commitment.  It also reminds us of a world where very little rhymes today.