President Obama Praises David Letterman, Led Zeppelin And Other Kennedy Center Honorees

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This year’s crop of Kennedy Center Honorees spent their afternoon being praised at the White House for contributions to the entertainment and artistic communities. Comedian David Letterman, ballerina Natalia Makarova, actor Dustin Hoffman, blues guitarist Buddy Guy and the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin were all the subject of gushing remarks by President Barack Obama as he continued the government’s tradition of “honoring some extraordinary people with no business being on the same stage together.”

According to ABC News, the president spent much of his time at the microphone discussing all of the honorees’ humble beginnings and how each of their journeys involved overcoming adversity before reaching the point where they made lasting contributions to society. Their quests were fundamentally American and, to him, prove the nation is still the greatest on Earth at cultivating, nurturing and providing the ideal environment for those with passion and dreams to thrive.

Every year, the Kennedy Center honors a group of men and women from a wide range of artistic fields who inspired others and achieved greatness over a long period of time. It’s hard to imagine how the selection committee could have possibly chosen people more worthy than those selected this year. Pop Blend’s sincerest thoughts go out to each and every one of them. They put smiles on our faces, made us think and implored entire generations of girls and boys to dream a little bigger.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.