This Looks Bad

A few election cycles back, a bit of an uproar resulted when some idiot on a college campus thought it germane to ask Slick Willie if he preferred 'boxers or briefs'. Soon, politicians everywhere were being asked their undergarment predispositions.

Thankfully, that particular bit of useless knowledge has been absent from this election, albeit replaced by a bevy of banal bits of likewise irrelevant information. We are now treated to learning about candidates' clothing styles, automobiles, and musical tastes - the subject of this post.

Last night, I took the bait and read what Obama's & McCain's top ten songs were, presumably on their iPods (does John McCain have an iPod?).

From the looks of it, BHO followed a fairly predictable path (Kanye, Springsteen, Marvin, U2), and seemingly tossed in a couple of selections calculated to broaden his appeal to middle America (Rolling Stones, Sinatra). As I said, some of it appeared contrived, but maybe I'm just being cynical.

Now for the bad part.

John McCain listed his top 10 also. Louis Armstrong. Sinatra. Haggard. Neil Diamond. Beach Boys. ABBA - twice! Whoa there, Maverick! Two of your top 10 songs by ABBA? Mamma Mia, what were you thinking?!

Editorial confession: In the '70s, I had a demo copy of ABBA's greatest hits. A visiting relative purloined it, probably thinking that since I had an after-school job in a record/tape warehouse, I could easily replace it - but I never did.

There's probably a myriad of explanations for the ABBA inclusion. They would've been sort of popular when McCain returned to civilization after 5-1/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton, so maybe they're seared into his consciousness. I hope they weren't included 'to appeal to the young folks', as they are the most recent songs on McCain's list. Nothing from the '80s forward - not even Huey's "Hip to Be Square".

The point, though, isn't what each candidate does or doesn't listen to. It's that in our voracious ADHD appetite for wall to wall programming for a zillion 'information' outlets, we've 'comfortably numbed' ourselves to the trivialization of some of our most sacred processes and responsibilities. Senator Obama has made a career of calculated avoidance of controversy, while at the same time giving glowing oratory - yet in this campaign cycle, we have gotten very little substance from either candidate on a host of issues that really matter to Americans.

We really should demand better from our media and the the candidates.

Also, we should also ask why there are no Eagles songs on their playlists. "Get Over It" would be an excellent campaign song, don't you think?