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“Of Thee I Sing” ???

a musical satire on politics by Gershwin ???
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In this article, there are links to sources when the book was first announced in Sept. 2010. (Obama apparently wrote the book before the election in 2008 as part of a book deal.)

“Of Thee I Sing” – The Historical Connection

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2628717/posts

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2010/09/15/%E2%80%9Cof-thee-i-sing%E2%80%9D-the-historical-connection/

Excerpt:
“The original Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened in 1931 and ran for 441 performances, receiving critical and box office success. It has been revived several times in the U.S. and in London. Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, in 1932.”

Apparently, the musical was so popular that it became the “longest running musical of its decade.” A synopsis by Brian D. Sweeney includes this description:

http://www.savoyardlightopera.org/otis_article.html

“The play mocks the ineffective politicians with their empty campaign slogans, but even more so it points the finger at the American populace that is willing to accept them and even elect them to office. Wintergreen’s road to success is a tribute to surface politics; he excites the voters out of apathy with his “love” campaign; he avoids impeachment by appealing to his appending fatherhood; and in singing his ballad-anthem “Of Thee I Sing, Baby” he woos both Mary and the nation, as the ambiguous lyric suggests.”

As I uncovered more of the story of this musical, the more interesting it became to the current political climate.

From the Of thee I sing [song collection]:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000013/default.html

“It was one of the first Broadway productions to deal with the serious subject of the American political scene, satirizing inept politicians with limited vision and the voters who elected them.

Snip

“Recovery, Recovery, Of Thee I Sing”

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sings “Recovery, recovery, of thee I sing,” a reference to the popular “Of Thee I Sing” in this cartoon. His sheet music credits him as author of the “words and music.” Dame Democracy plays the piano while an old opponent for the Democratic nomination, Al Smith, sits glumly aside. By midsummer 1933, the first year of Roosevelt’s presidency, Congress had passed a record amount of New Deal legislation.”

My how history repeats….