On Alicia Keys' mediocre, confusing presidential serenade

Sometimes casual assuredness can be a good thing: President Obama and  First Lady Michelle Obama walking down Pennsylvania Avenue after the second inauguration in Washington, D.C., for example, was an exercise in such confidence. But other times, ill-advised casualness can go wrong, as it did during Alicia Keys' much discussed performance at the Public Inaugural Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, one of two official inaugural balls on Monday night.

By Randall Roberts

January 22, 2013