Frankly, I didn’t know much about Merle Haggard other then he is a legendary country singing bad boy who recently received, along with Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey and others, the Kennedy Center Honors. That’s all very nice but apparently more happened on Haggard’s whirlwind trip to DC to receive his award: the singing ex-con, pardoned by both Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, was charmed by His Hipness, Barack Obama.

Following his award ceremony at the Kennedy Center, Merle Haggard gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which he actually defended Barack Obama’s performance as President and Obama as a person. Here’s what Merle Haggard said about Barack Obama as President:

“It’s really almost criminal what they do with our President. There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he’s doing certain things that he’s not. It’s just a big old political game that I don’t want to be part of. There are people spending their lives putting him down. I’m sure some of it’s true and some of it’s not. I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be.”

Whoa. Just whoa. And here’s Merle Haggard on Barack Obama, the person:

“He’s not conceited. He’s very humble about being the President of the United States, especially in comparison to some presidents we’ve had who come across like they don’t need anybody’s help. I think he knows he’s in over his head. Anybody with any sense who takes that job and thinks they can handle it must be an idiot.”

Hm. In hindsight, maybe Merle IS an old fool, but he’s also crazy like a fox. And the part about His Hipness being humble? Well does humility look like this?

His Hipness, Barack Obama, Being All Hip And Stuff