Jig’s Up Hillary: Bruce Endorses Barack
Rocker Bruce Springsteen, who has gotten filthy rich (and deservedly so) for his gritty parables of blue-collar Americans, is defending — and endorsing — Barack Obama.
The Boss wrote in a message to fans that Obama’s comments that some small town Americans were “bitter” and so they clung to religion and guns, had been “ripped out of context.”
Wrote Springsteen on his website:
“Like most of you, I’ve been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.
“He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems.”
Springsteen made his first foray into presidential politics by performing at events for 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry. He pulled huge crowds to hear Kerry speak in Wisconsin, Ohio and other battleground states days before Kerry’s defeat.
More here.
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9 Responses to “Jig’s Up Hillary: Bruce Endorses Barack”
You know that Frank Rich column cites Hillary as doing the same thing? In the first paragraph of the story?
Of course you do.
[...] The Moderate Voice – Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, original reporti… placed an interesting blog post on Jigâ??s Up Hillary: Bruce Endorses BarackHere’s a brief overview [...]
Four more years! Four more years!
“Nuanced and complex” — [snicker]
Springsteen is just practicing Hollywood Entertainer PC “Social Consciousness,” a criterion of excellence (sic; PC conformity) of among that crowd.
Maybe he's trying to get the next Nobel Peace Prize.
You know that Frank Rich column cites Hillary as doing the same thing? In the first paragraph of the story?
Of course you do.
It was ripped out of context, Marlowecan. When you read Obama's full response, it is clear that he is laying the blame on both political parties for causing voters to turn a blind eye towards economic promises on the stump. They are more likely to turn into single-issue (guns, anti-illegal immigration, anti-trade) voters when they believe the wider issues will never be addressed.
I'm still not totally sure what you're saying, though. Is it okay to take Obama out of context because you believe Obama took McCain out of context? Are you saying that Springsteen is right and it's wrong to take Obama out of context, just like it was wrong to take McCain out of context? Or are you just looking to take a potshot without having to put down a coherent viewpoint?
Marlowe,
Again, the larger context of the McCain quote…
A) …makes no sense. Iraq is not S. Korea or Germany or Japan. A great many people in the Middle East aren't too happy about the idea of an ongoing U.S. military presence, especially one that reeks of an occupying force.
B) …provides the same picture of McCain as the quote without the context. He has stated that we have to stay in Iraq to maintain our honor, fight terrorism, curb Iranian influence, etc. McCain has yet to provide a scenario in which our retreat would be necessary.
So, we are left with the conclusion that McCain doesn't know that people in the Middle East have a tendency to fly into our skyscrapers when our troops in their countries. And that there is no chance our troops will ever leave Iraq because the mission there is so important.
John “100 Years in Iraq” McCain sums that up pretty well.
Pyronite: “Or are you just looking to take a potshot without having to put down a coherent viewpoint?”
I think it is wrong to take people's words out of context. Period. That is coherent, no?
I have defended Obama when his words were bizarrely twisted re: his grandmother, his daughters etc. (the last being particularly repugnant, I thought)
However, Obama repeatedly used the “100 years war” quote out of context. He has been called on it several times by reporters, who made the point that he was doing to McCain what Obama complained about. I posted a link to a video of this here…it has occurred serveral times since.
My point: Obama – or Springsteen – cannot make the “out of context” complaint when they repeatedly do not extend that courtesy to John McCain.
JanineDM: Yep, HRC has been using it. But most of her fire is for Obama these days. It is Obama who has been using it so often that reporters are now stopping interviews to call him on it. There was a YouTube of an Obama interview, on the Today show I think, of this occuring. It wasn't pleasant.
ChrisWWW: The larger quote has McCain saying that he is willing to stay in Iraq for a 100 years, with the qualification that Americans aren't getting killed.
Not a 100 years of Americans getting killed at the present rate.
Chris, you are right in your larger point about McCain's policy, I think.
But not about Obama's use of McCain's words. As Frank Rich said, it is a “bogus Democratic attack line”.
Rich is no friend of the GOP. But when one is getting called on it by reporters whenever one uses the same attack line…it is time to retire it and move on.
Four more years! Four more years!