Posted on 05/19/2010 7:16:37 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama Wednesday deployed the full pomp of a White House state dinner for only the second time, honoring Mexico's President Felipe Calderon with a sumptuous menu and elaborate decor.
The White House was also road testing unspecified extra security measures, after the inaugural Obama state dinner last year for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was marred when a socialite couple gatecrashed the festivities.
Key members of the US-Mexico community were expected among 200 guests at the glamorous black-tie gala evening at the White House, as well as actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Eva Longoria, and Mexican billionaire business mogul Carlos Slim.
R&B Diva Beyonce topped the entertainment bill for the dinner, taking place in the East Room of the White House, with the action later moving to a luxury marquee on the South Lawn of the presidential mansion.
The marquee, the size of two-thirds of a football field, decked out in elaborate black decor and nightclub-style lighting, featured a stage and baskets of flowers and models of Monarch butterflies dangling from the ceiling.
The Monarch butterfly migrates from Canada, across the United States each year to Calderon's home state of Michoacan in Mexico.
Beyonce was to be supported by Rodrigo y Gabriela, a flamenco-celtic rock band famed for cover versions of heavy rock bands like Led Zeppelin, and the US Marines Band.
The menu mixed Mexican flavors -- with a starter made of Jicama, a turnip-like vegetable popular in Mexico served with oranges, grapefruit and pineapple -- with Obama's own heritage -- a Hawaiian Opah fish from his home state.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Gag me!
Yes, we are paying for it. The media makes me sick.
What, did he show his grill?
We are definitely suffering from great moral decline.
We have so many people who hate God, Our Country and themselves.
You don’t believe it, Google it. Please don’t accept my word for it.
Wake up next to that and start chewing your arm off.
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