I have to wonder why, after a long campaign with rallies which had some good music–or at least had Tom Petty, Obama picked a Brooks & Dunn song to be the punch line for his biggest speech. Sure, I know the lyrics for “Only in America” fit Obama’s “living the American dream” theme, but so do lots of songs that don’t have a steel guitar*. It’s a fair assumtion that this song is not really Obama’s type of music. His music leans more toward the Stevie Wonder end of the pop spectrum. Maybe it would have seemed like too much Stevie Wonder to play “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” like he has at many other rallies. He could have picked the will.i.am Obama song. Or he could have picked the even more horrible Dave Stewart Obama song, whose release seems to have been timed for it to be used for this very purpose. Nope, Obama picked a song that Bush used at the Republican Convention. And not only did Bush use the Brooks & Dunn song, he actually campaigned with them, so they are clearly Republican supporters**. I guess Obama should be glad they didn’t sue him.
*And if you listen, the steel guitar, along with banjo, sound as if they were added as an afterthought to remind you that you’re listening to “country” music.
**Or they just know their audience is likely to be Republican, à la Toby Keith.
It's likely that I have mentioned this before, but once when I was in Hollywood I was in the jay Leno studio audience. I had never been in a studio audience before and it was pretty painful and the audience participation was totally contrived and coaxed. It was in this setting that I saw maybe the worst guest line up for a talk show ever. Brookes and Dunn and …….. an adult Cauley McCulkin. Seriously, can you think of worse guests to be stuck seeing? B & D were wearing black leather pants.
I would have just gone with a lovely jazz mix. Or probably classical. It’s so rousing.
Come on, Cauley as an adult? That is comedy gold! It had to be! Unless it was painful. I mean, a really bad super painful with no funny anywhere.
I don’t really wonder (hehe). For starters Obama isn’t “above the game” as zealots might have you believe. Secondly it’s not that it’s too much Stevie Wonder – it’s too black (duh). There’s a reason the convention was in Denver after all – the party is moving West and leaving black politics behind.
There’s a very good article in the current New Yorker which details this. While the article doesn’t mention that almost 14% of Southern Black males can’t even vote (because of convictions) it does point out that in Southern areas with large percentages of black people, the white people in those areas are overwhelmingly Republican. Dems aren’t even thinking about Southern States.
Obama certainly has the support of the Illinois black majority but only tenuously and without any real conviction on his part. He doesn’t party with Jesse Jackson. He was invited to be the King of the Bud Billiken parade this year (the largest Afro-American parade in the country). He declined to attend.
He is understandably more attentive to the success of his campaign in the West. To Hispanics and affluent eco-minded dems and certainly not to the welfare state.
Not sure what change we could get but we’re not getting Putney Swope.
What’s with the Tom Petty love fest anyway? What’s next in the ole NAP, is someone gonna’ try and claim that Frank Sinatra started punk? Anyone seen my walker?
Is there a Petty love fest that I missed? As far as I can tell, only one of us has expressed love for Petty. I don’t dislike him, though, so maybe that’s where you’re confused.
Nice try on the political commentary J and W. Looking forward to more. I might actually join in. Thought we could get some good Alaskan commentary too on the new lady in town.