Politics Can Wait: The President Has a Date

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/nyregion/31obama.html?hp

The Obamas escaped Washington on Saturday in search of a quintessential New York evening: dinner and a Broadway show.

They found it at Blue Hill, a low-key Greenwich Village restaurant, and at the Belasco Theater near Times Square for a performance of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” the August Wilson play.

It was the Obamas’ first joint visit to the city as the first couple.

Times Square was even more frenetic than usual, as pedestrians lined several blocks waiting to catch a glimpse of Mr. and Mrs. Obama. At the corner of Broadway and 44th Street, a crowd stood and watched expectantly, even though they were so far away they could barely see the old-fashioned sign for the Belasco, illuminated in light bulbs.

“It’s going to be so cool to go to school and say I saw the president," said Jessica Allen, a 16-year-old who landed a prime spot across the street from the theater, hours before the show began.

Just before 8 p.m., the crowd erupted in cheers as the couple arrived in a black limousine.

The audience inside buzzed with excitement over the Obamas, but more than 15 minutes later, the Secret Service was still guiding theatergoers through metal detectors.

“I am taking my wife to New York City,” the president said in the statement, “because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished.”

How tone deaf are they? I suspect that most Americans, male and female, are charmed by this story.

and WE ARE (charmed!)