Barack Obama is not merely the president of the United States. He is also apparently the president of the Meryl Streep fan club, a position he made very clear on Monday afternoon while presenting the Oscar-winning actress with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“I love Meryl Streep,” the president is quoted as saying by White House reporter Jennifer Bendery. “Her husband knows I love her. Michelle knows I love her. There’s nothing they can do about it.”
“She’s done it all for her craft,” the President continued. “She’s [even] sung ABBA,” he said, referring to her role in Mamma Mia!. Suggesting that the 2008 musical was not his favorite Streep film, Obama deadpanned, “That’s something.”
Other recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom today included Stevie Wonder (“Thanks to Stevie, all of us have been moved to higher ground.”),Ethel Kennedy (“We give thanks to a person whose love for her family is matched by her devotion to her nation.”), and Tom Brokaw (“The chronicler of the Greatest Generation . . .we celebrate him as one of our nation’s greatest journalists”).
http://youtu.be/ABw-JPcR9wk
