Advertisement

President Obama, Mitt Romney cameo on 2012 CMT Music Awards

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

It may be hard to imagine President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney agreeing on anything, but apparently they’ve found common ground in country music.

The rival presidential candidates have taped what’s described as “a comedic opening segment” for tonight’s 2012 CMT Music Awards show running at 8 p.m. on the country music cable channel.

Advertisement

Obama has previously shown himself to be a capable crooner of the blues (he sang a snippet of “Sweet Home Chicago” during a recent salute to the blues at the White House) and silky R&B (a tidbit of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a fundraiser in Harlem earlier this year). Meanwhile, at a January campaign stop in Florida, Romney showed off his vocal skills on “America the Beautiful.”

It’s not the first presidential presence at the CMT awards. During the 2008 election year, the three leading candidates -- Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- also delivered taped cameo appearances.

Pop & Hiss isn’t expecting a musical performance from either, but given the great tradition of duets in country music, we humbly offer a few suggestions on classic songs that Obama and Romney might team up on in the spirit of national unity:

Buck Owens’ “Together Again”

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton’s “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me”

Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December”

The Louvin’ Brothers’ “When I Stop Dreaming”

Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers”

Or, if cooperation and mutual respect won’t cut it in today’s contentious times, they might go with any of these:

Jerry Lee Lewis’ “When Two Worlds Collide”

George Jones’ “The Door”

Lefty Frizzell’s “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time”

Hank Williams’ “Move It on Over”

Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City”

Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack”

Ultimately, perhaps, maybe it would just be best to create an “American Idol”-like alternative to the long, drawn-out and astonishingly expensive campaign process. Simply let viewers phone in and vote on who’ll be the next chief executive based on which one delivers the more convincing version of a song. Which one? How about the Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me”?

ALSO:

Advertisement

Musical moments with U.S. presidents

Raw video: Mitt Romney sings ‘America the Beautiful’

Obama covers Al Green -- for one line of ‘Let’s Stay Together’

-- Randy Lewis

Composite photo showing President Obama speaking last month in Newton, Iowa, and Mitt Romney addressing workers at a factory in Fremont, Calif. Credit: Associated Press.

Advertisement