Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

One of the things that always bugs me is when in some attempt to get into the soul of politicians, folks ask in what their favorite book is or the last book they read is for those “capsule profiles” that they do.  The trouble with this question is that you rarely get an honest answer.  Some will answer The Bible, which in many cases smacks of a desperate cry of “I’m pious darnit, now please don’t check my credit card receipts to see how much I charged at that strip club.” The other pat answer is whatever the latest popular history book is. Yes, I’d like folks who have read history to serve in office, but I have a hard time believing that every single one of them is constantly engrossed in the latest biography by David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin. This always looks to me that they are trying too hard to be thought of as thinkers.  Great minds can also read John Grisham (for liberals) or Tom Clancy (for conservatives) once in a while too, these are human beings after all.

The funniest thing I saw along these lines was when the DLC published their 100 to Watch a few years back.  Some of these guys actually named DLC publications as their favorite thing to read.  One of the guys guilty of this ultra-brown nosing was Phil Gordon, then a Phoenix City Councilman.

I always thought that a good way to get a more honest answer would be to ask about a favorite song or maybe the last CD they listened to.  Harder to fake intellectualism on this one (a person would be unlikely to claim a liking of Antonín Dvořák or Charles Mingus unless he or she actually does), and musical tastes are so bifuracted that it is hard to give a pat answer calculated to please everyone.

Anyhow, I watched the openings to some of the speeches given by candidates at the DNC meeting this weekend. Each one was introduced by a song, which I assume was chosen by the candidate.  Here were their choices:

• Joe Biden - Centerfield by John Fogerty
• Wes Clark - I Won’t Back Down by Johnny Cash (Originally Performed by Tom Petty)
• Hillary Clinton - Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones
• Chris Dodd - Get Ready by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
• John Edwards - Our Country by John Mellencamp
• Mike Gravel - Power to the People by John Lennon
• Dennis Kucinich - America the Beautiful (unknown performer)
• Barack Obama - (none)
• Bill Richardson - Lean on Me by Bill Withers
• Tom Vilsack - Let the Day Begin by The Call

I may be wrong about Obama, his song may very well have been John Cage’s 4′33″.

Interestingly, only one candidate chose an artist from their state, Clark picking fellow Arkansas native Johnny Cash. Probably lucky that they didn’t feel they had to do this, or else Biden would have had to come out to a song by George Thorogood (Biden probably hasn’t heard of Tom Verlaine). Interestingly, Gravel and Clinton both picked songs performed by English artists.

(Yes, “Won’t Back Down” was co-written by Englishman Jeff Lynne. Details!)

No obvious gaffes here, nothing like Ronald Reagan asking to use ”Born in the USA” because he was totally clueless about what it was really about.  Edwards’s choice of “Our Country” was interesting because it, like “Born in the USA,” is a patriotic ditty on the surface but has another message for those who choose to actually listen to the lyrics:

There’s room enough here
For science to live
And there’s room enough here
For religion to forgive
And try to understand
All the people of this land
This is our country

From the east coast
To the west coast
Down the Dixie Highway
Back home
This is our country

That poverty could be
Just another ugly thing
And bigotry would be
Seen only as obscene
And the ones that run this land
Help the poor and common man
This is our country

You can almost forgive the fact that it’s now a Chevy ad. Almost.

Anyhow, I’ll leave the other conclusions up to y’all.  You can check out the entirety of the speeches on the DNC’s website.

NB - Me? Either Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ cover of “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding” or The Buzzcocks’ “Nostalgia for an Age Yet to Come.” If I want to go all Tucson on folks, it would be The Band of Blacky Ranchette’s “Code of the Road.”

By the way, the Weekly does ask elected officials for their favorite music.