‘Let’s stay together’ upped Obama’s chances of re-election, bookie says

Joseph Williams, POLITICO

Friday, Jan. 20, 2012 | 1:39 p.m.

Among those who swooned when President Barack Obama crooned at a New York fundraiser Thursday night: Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.

The oddsmaker announced this morning that it has tightened the prospects of Obama's re-election from 8:11 to 4:6 after seeing video of Obama singing a line of the Rev. Al Green’s 1970s hit, “Let’s Stay Together” to an adoring crowd at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater. The impromptu performance, which the oddsmaker called “spectacular” as well as “relaxed and charismatic,” convinced the oddsmaker that the president and the US electorate may be in it for the long haul after 2012.

“We’re calling it the ‘Al Green’ effect. We can’t get the song out of our heads after seeing the video of him at the Apollo,” according to a press release Paddy Power issued Friday morning. “Policies are important but so too is the ability to move and motivate people and Obama does that effortlessly.”