Obama's Birthday Bash: Jay-Z, Tom Hanks, Stevie Wonder Among Guests

President Obama had a star-studded 50th birthday party in the Rose Garden on Thursday night for approximately 200 people that included a casual picnic dinner and plenty of dancing afterwards.

According to numerous reports, guests included Jay-Z, Chris Rock, Tom Hanks, Hanks' wife Rita Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, Charles Barkley, and plenty of the couple's Chicago friends, including Obama's two closest buddies, Marty Nesbitt and Eric Whitaker. Their two young daughters, Sasha and Malia, stayed up for the party, as did first grandmother Marian Robinson. Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock performed music in the East Room, and later, guests danced barefoot on the grass in the Rose Garden to a DJ.

Shortly after midnight, Chris Rock tweeted, "Just left the Presidents birthday party at the White House. Herbie Hancock played, Stevie Wonder sang and yes they did the electric slide. A great night." And a private night: The president's press pool were sent home at 4 p.m. Thursday, and guests began arriving at 5.

The blog Obama-Food-O-Rama reported many of the details of the party, including that the president challenged everyone to dance -- he and the first lady led the way.

Politico reported that the guest list was heavy on political allies and White House staffers, both current and former.

Cabinet members included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who sometimes plays basketball with the president.

Plenty of guests had occupied offices in the West Wing: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was there, as was his successor as Obama's chief of staff, Bill Daley. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett came, as did former advisers David Axelrod and David Plouffe, Robert Gibbs, Anita Dunn, Pete Rouse, John Brennan, Susan Sher, Alyssa Mastromonaco, and White House chef Sam Kass.

From Congress came Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.). Former Democratic governors Tim Kaine and Bill Richardson both attended, as did the DNC's executive director, Patrick Gaspard, a former White House staff member.

The menu featured summer favorites like burgers, Chicago-style hot dogs, salad and for dessert, four types of pie courtesy of White House pastry chef Bill Yosses: apple, peach, huckleberry and cherry. The party and its menu won't end up on the White House tab, the Obamas paid for it with their personal funds.

The party is a far cry from Obama's 49th birthday celebration, a quiet dinner in Chicago with close friends, including Oprah Winfrey. The first lady was traveling last year on her husband's birthday, and he had a boys weekend of golf at the White House with friends, including Nesbitt and Whitaker. The year before, Obama's first year in the White House, he had a private family birthday party.

This report has been updated to include details on how the party was paid for.

Comments

[NYC619]

03:13 PM on 08/07/2011

Let the haters eat cake and choke on it.

[Seattlelite]

01:45 PM on 08/07/2011

If anyone deserved a nice birthday celebration it was our President. Happy 50th Mr. President and wishing you many many more.

[herb butterfield]

11:29 AM on 08/07/2011

He should have forgotten the big bash and helped the unisured. I am so very disappointed in Mr Obama and cannot back him anymore. Look at the mess he helped us get in. I was behind him up until now. When will he have guts. I lived through Pres Kennedy and the Cuban crisis. We need a Kennedy or the like back in the White House. Sorry Mr Obama no vote this time for you.

[bobbythompson3333]

10:30 AM on 08/07/2011

It'd be nice if PBO were as concerned about the country than gettin' his party on.

[Seattlelite]

01:46 PM on 08/07/2011

I think he can do both, he's just that kinda guy.

[NYC619]

03:14 PM on 08/07/2011

SnobbyJohnson is only having a hissy fit because his mommy didn't throw him any parties, after all why celebrate the birth of an idiot.

[Pennstategirl]

09:25 AM on 08/07/2011

Sounds pretty normal to me. He deserves a party...everyone does....he paid for it..... case closed for most of us.

[JBoy]

04:09 AM on 08/07/2011

The stock market was so happy about Obama's birthday that it dropped over 500 points!

Woo-hoo! Millions of thousands of people lost thousands of dollars in honor of Obama.

Obama celebrates as the nation goes broke!

[ElBruce]

04:32 AM on 08/07/2011

The Republicans are the ones trying to make the nation go broke. They're the ones who caused the debt downgrade. You're trivializing the real economic pain felt by millions of Americans by pretending it has anything to do with Obama's birthday party.

[Always Conservative]

02:40 PM on 08/07/2011

It has EVERYTHING to do with Obama ineptitude and his failure of leadership.

[herb butterfield]

11:25 AM on 08/07/2011

ditto

[Stephen Stafford]

03:49 AM on 08/07/2011

I have never seen so many mean spirited and mean posts about something that is universally celebrated. Everyone here has a birthday. People all over the world celebrate them. 50 is a milestone birthday, and many people have special celebrations.

Just about everybody has had a birthday party, and we know the joy of helping somebody special celebrate it. So just roll out your joy for the President and be glad for him that he got to make it to 50. Part-tay!!!

Ain't nothin' else to say but Happy Birthday, Mr. President. Leave those sour grapes in your house. Don't bother to make like he should be concerned with anybody else as he celebrates his special day.

[USA2Sense]

02:52 AM on 08/07/2011

Happy Birthday - Mr. President - there are a lot of you out here - who wish you well.....

[annyp]

02:36 AM on 08/07/2011

After reading some of the comments there are a lot of bitter people that must have never had a birthday party. Give it a try sometime it is uplifting. Everyone needs a break including the President even for an evening.

[mustardhead98]

11:01 AM on 08/07/2011

Of course there's nothing wrong with having a birthday party esp. for your 50th. But PLEEZE don't say "everyone needs a break...including the President...." This prez has had many a break over the past several years....many, many, many, many.............................

[NYC619]

03:15 PM on 08/07/2011

Apparently you have one too many breaks in your head.

[SURFERMOM]

03:57 PM on 08/07/2011

No, he has not.He has had no breaks.You are lying.He came into office with the worst economy in a free-fall of job losses and in a recession with a huge deficit built up over 8 years of a Con,Republican administration with two wars off the books,tax cuts we we couldn't afford and were not offset with lower spending and when a Lib, Democratic President BEFORE George W. Bush gave Bush a SURPLUS.
What nerve you people have! No Shame.No Facts.
Get your facts straight lying mustardhead.
I have news for you Con, just because you say it, doesn't make it true.
Stop lying.

[Cornell Booth]

12:16 AM on 08/07/2011

BUTS ITS OKAY FOR AMERICA TO BE OBSESSED WITH THE ROYAL BRITISH MARRIAGE. NO ONE COMPLAINED ABOUT THE OVER ZEALOUS BORING WEDDING. GOOD THING OBAMA WAS NOT INVITED. OR ANY OTHER BLACK PUBLIC FIGURES, BESIDES NAOMI.

[JBoy]

03:53 AM on 08/07/2011

That's a BOLD statement.

[mustardhead98]

11:03 AM on 08/07/2011

OMG do left wing lads/ladies always have to bring up race? SO tired.......

[Ravenlea]

12:32 PM on 08/07/2011

I guess we have to bring it up until the right wing admits that racism is alive and well. Pretending that it isn't, does not make it so. I didn't thing we had cured our racism in this country, but I thought we had moved well forward. The past few years have given painful proof to what virulent bigotry still lies beneath the surface (and not so much beneath it any more) in our society. Being prone to optimism, it is my hope that it is surfacing in order to for our social psyche to be healed of it.

Every Regressive isn't a racist, but there is and has been a consistent and repulsive use of racism by the Regressive and Tea Parties against the President. Not every disagreement is about race but race has been used. To pretend otherwise is self-delusion. And that's why we bring it up.

[wizzardly]

11:59 PM on 08/06/2011

Bad optics and very bad reality. Celebrating OBAMA while the country is going down the tube. Can't wait for those ads. You have to give Obama credit for terrible judgement and timing. His big 50 celebration was a clash. First black prez partying down while making history with the worst downgrade by S&P. Party while you can Obama. Just know millions and millions of people are hurting really hard. Karma is a witch. You're enjoying and others are crying.

[Cornell Booth]

12:11 AM on 08/07/2011

WHO STOPPED YOU FROM CELEBRATING YOUR BIRTHDAY. HEEEE PAID FOR IT. JEALOUSY IS AN UGLY TRAIT

[molly29451]

12:47 AM on 08/07/2011

No one is jealous. It is seems frivolous to have party after birthday party when our country gets more bad news every day.

[mustardhead98]

11:04 AM on 08/07/2011

It's called being out of touch. And this Prez is OUT OF TOUCH!

[molly29451]

12:19 AM on 08/07/2011

Great, thoughtful post - thank you. Fanned you, faved you and gave you one of the few badges I have left.

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping, don't want to name the big food chain here, and they were told that the store is closing in October. Employees were crying, employees were hugging each other. It broke my heart. While that was going on, Obama was in party-mode.

Karma is a cruel mistress -- Obama - one term

[BethS]

01:48 AM on 08/07/2011

Ahhh...when you wish upon a star...

[VolcanoInsurance]

11:38 PM on 08/06/2011

How many poor unemployed people could the money for this party have helped? Will someone please think of the children!

[wizzardly]

12:04 AM on 08/07/2011

Don't you get it? Obama doesn't think of others...it's all about him. At least Carter tried. He wants class warfare. He's got it against him. Very selfish and egotistical. SAD.

[ElBruce]

04:35 AM on 08/07/2011

You won't be having a birthday party this year, I take it.

What about the Koch brothers, all billionaires and all CEO's - rich people across the board? Do you call on them to eschew personal celebrations and instead donate money to... something?

Besides, the GOP opposes paying any more money for unemployment.

[VolcanoInsurance]

12:43 PM on 08/07/2011

The Koch brothers and all billionaires and all CEOs are not on TV every chance they get preaching shared sacrifice. I just think a president should lead by example. Obama's example is "You sacrifice, I'll keep living it up"

[prog]

10:53 PM on 08/06/2011

If Obama wants a birthday party -- ON HIS OWN DIME --- he can do whatever he wants.

Oh, whoops, forgot, he's a black man in the white house, and must be castigated for everything, including breathing and taking up space. Did you know he eats food and sleeps? In the White House? Shocking!

[BethS]

01:50 AM on 08/07/2011

If you get what you give (micro-bio) you must a miserable wretch!

[mustardhead98]

11:10 AM on 08/07/2011

Pleeze give up the race thing. 99.9% of the time it's the progressives who are constantly driving in the bigotry/racist card.

[Ice woman]

01:44 PM on 08/07/2011

So Fox Nation's Hip Hop Bbq line was what? Cute?

[NYC619]

03:20 PM on 08/07/2011

CustardHead is too soft on the brain, the idiot forgot it was people like him who questioned the Prez's birth place and religion and hold up signs and sock monkeys to taunt him.

[David305]

09:59 PM on 08/06/2011

Happy Birthday Mr President.

[farleft1917]

09:36 PM on 08/06/2011

At my 50th I had some friends and we went to a Japanese restaurant and I paid. I'm just like the president, minus the Hollywood stars, the rich people, the famous and the political cronies.

Yep, Obama is a man of the people...not.
He's already worth over 6m and will be extremely rich when you add the pension and huge allowance for offices when he retires..never need to worry about healthcare.

I bet he's the first former president, even if he is just one term, to have his own private jet too...or does GWB have that record?

[Cornell Booth]

11:33 PM on 08/06/2011

Obamas an elitist, look at that star list. GWB had one person at his little gatherings that had more money than erbody at Obama's party(Billionaires). Yall just mad cause that was probably the first party in the white house that had mostly African Americans in it since slavery days. lol. be afraid, be very afraid, we coming for hockey next.lmao

[wizzardly]

12:07 AM on 08/07/2011

Public school is really working...or the liquor store is still open.

[NYC619]

03:21 PM on 08/07/2011

Yeah cuz you know when you don't have Kelsey "impregnate and divorce gold diggers" Grammer and Chuck "don't need a brain when I'm aging D list action actor" Norris then you got nothing.

[Ravenlea]

12:24 AM on 08/07/2011

Well, you aren't the president and I'm guessing that you don't know any of those people so they aren't your friends and are unlikely to want to go to your birthday party. Presidents - all of them - tend to run in different circles than the rest of us do. It's the nature of things. If I knew Tom Hanks or Stevie Wonder or some Hilary Clinton, you can bed I'd have invited them to my 50th birthday party.

Obama doesn't have a private jet that I've heard about.

Obama didn't inherit his wealth, he earned it writing two books.. which he actually wrote himself. Bush on the other hand got much of his from his family and from shady business dealings. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/aug2002/bush-a01.shtml

[molly29451]

12:49 AM on 08/07/2011

Whom paid for Obama's education? I bet you would be surprised - it wasn't him.