Wednesday, April 16, 2008

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ENDORSES... BARACK OBAMA

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Despite the self-serving media frenzy, most normal people are nonplused by the faux outrage that Insiders Hillary and McCain have been trying to gin up about Obama's "bitterness" comment. This morning's Congressional Quarterly notes that "many Pennsylvania voters" aren't taking it very seriously at all. Even small town Republicans think it's mostly bullshit. Some polls are even showing the whole brouhaha has hurt Clinton, rather than Obama, because of their relative reactions, showing her to be a bitter partisan who will say or do anything (like McCain) to be elected while showing Obama to be cool and collected under intense fire. Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette endorsed Obama, calling him the candidate of the future and Hillary the candidate of the past.
Sen. Obama is every bit as prepared to answer the ring of the 3 a.m. phone as Sen. Clinton. Forget this idea that Sen. Obama is all inspiration and no substance. He has detailed positions on the major issues. When the occasion demands it, he can marshal eloquence in the service of making challenging arguments, which he did to great effect in his now-famous speech putting his pastor's remarks in the greater context of race relations in America.

Nor is he any sort of elitist. As he said yesterday in effectively refuting this ridiculous charge in a meeting with Post-Gazette editors, "my life's work has been to get everybody a fair shake."

This editorial began by observing that one candidate is of the past and one of the future. The litany of criticisms heaped on Sen. Obama by the Clinton camp, simultaneously doing the work of the Republicans, is as illustrative as anything of which one is which. These are the cynical responses of the old politics to the new.

Sen. Obama has captured much of the nation's imagination for a reason. He offers real change, a vision of an America that can move past not only racial tensions but also the political partisanship that has so bedeviled it.

Perhaps more important than the newspaper endorsement was the one Obama got yesterday from Bruce Springsteen:
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 has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. 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, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

The Hildog countered with trombone player Willie Colón, who to be fair, is a salsa icon and Mayor Bloomberg's liaison to the Latin Media Entertainment Commission

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5 Comments:

At 8:34 AM, Blogger Jimmy the Saint said...

Howie:
Have you ever seen Bruce live? Just wondering since he worked for a competing record company(when you were with Warner Bros.)

 
At 9:02 AM, Blogger cybermome said...

Jimmy,

I'm not Howie, but I grew up in Philadelphia listening to a disc jockey named Ed Shockey. He befriended Bruce when no one every heard of him and played him on the radio. I fell in love with Bruces' music and have seen him over the years too many times to count. I recently heard him speak on NPR abut his own hard scrabble life. The kind of life here in PA that BO tried to articulate about when he gave that speech in san Franciso

 
At 9:41 AM, Blogger DownWithTyranny said...

Yes, I've seen Springsteen live a few times. I like his music-- and I didn't just go see Warner Bros. artists play. Before I was a record exec, I was a music fan. (Afterwards too!)

 
At 10:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have seen Bruce Springsteen live. He did a special concert for the VIETNAM VETS ABOUT 1989 in Los Angeles. He was/is fabulous!

BORN IN THE USA!

 
At 11:55 AM, Blogger SharonRB said...

Cybermome -- my uncle, Dave Herman, was a DJ in the East (eventually morning drive time in NYC on WABC and WNEW) when Bruce first started out. He, too, was one of the first to really promote him early on. There was an article in Newsweek when Bruce started to hit the big time in which my uncle was quoted. At the time, I thought my uncle was over-hyping him, but I eventually caught up and really enjoy his music now. Glad to see he's supporting Obama.

 

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