For Obama's Birthday: Performances by Jennifer Hudson, Herbie Hancock

Jennifer Hudson and Herbie Hancock will perform at an Aug. 3 fund-raiser in Chicago for President Obama's 50th birthday.

Tickets to the Aragon ballroom event start at $200 and run to $35,800 for a dinner and briefing at Obama's reelection headquarters, the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet reports.

Also performing will be OK GO.

The question is whether Obama will be there or if he'll be engaged in a debt crisis if the U.S. defaults on Aug. 2. He turns 50 on Aug. 4.

There are some parallels to Obama's 50th and that of the last Democrat to hold the White House, Bill Clinton. The latter held a giant fundraising gala for his 50th at the Radio City Music Hall on Aug. 18, 1996, with Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Conway, and Aretha Franklin appearing. Just as Obama faces wariness from the left over massive cuts to popular programs, Clinton faced protesters to his recent signing of a welfare reform bill. Video of Clinton's event here.