Etta James and Obama's McCain Moment

President Obama, for the first time since January 21, has proven to be tone deaf.

Inviting Beyonce' to sing "At Last" to the President and the First Lady on the evening after his Inauguration -- and ignoring Etta James, for whom the song has been a signature melody, a trademark, for 40+ years -- was a bad misstep. I mean 'bad' in the bad sense, not "Man, that girrrl is baaaad!" 

Bad like he stepped in a pile of dog crap. With both feet.

Etta James is now on him, and on Beyonce', like white on rice, calling him "...the one with the big ears..." and threatening to kick Beyonce's ass. In other words, she's a tad upset.

Letterman hammered McCain for weeks because McCain lied to him and blew off appearing on his show. At that point the tide of popular opinion slid downward, covering McCain's Presidential hopes in dog poop. It may have been a much closer race had McCain not made that choice, to blow off Letterman. McCain may have won. We'll never know, but...

Etta James is not Letterman. But Etta is not going away, and she's a mouthy sister. She may talk about this incident, publicly, for weeks. 

Barack better pick up the phone and do a little fence mending. And check his instincts for doing the correct thing, as he should've done originally by inviting Etta to sing her song to Michelle and him, and not a younger, more glossy stand-in.