Political Punch
Recently the President's re-election campaign released a list of songs — a soundtrack, really — to be played during campaign events or just offered up to his supporters to download.
A theme song for a political campaign is not at all a new concept -- remember FDR 's 'Happy Days are Here Again,' for instance, or the Frank Sinatra rewritten version of "High Hopes" for John F. Kennedy's campaign.
But as we've seen recently, campaigns sometimes run into trouble when they incorporate music without the OK from the musician on the other side of the political aisle. Tom Petty wanted Michelle Bachmann to quit it with 'American Girl' last year. But if the campaign is in your political corner, as Bruce Springsteen was for Barack Obama and John Kerry's campaigns, there is less friction.
But the Obama campaign is taking all of this one step further with a 29-song playlist that Washington Post music critic Chris Richards said is more like a constituents' mix tape.
"He's really trying to woo voters here with a selection of songs just like we've done for the person we had a crush on in high school," Richards said.
So, what does the song selection reveal about our Al Green-crooning President? Richards says the collection is all over the place, with musical genres bumping up against each other. Classic soul tunes with modern country acts.
And what's missing? No hip hop.