Campaign Playlists

It's always interesting to hear the music that plays at political campaign stops, especially when it's clear that a candidate (or the staffer who put together the mix tape) either hasn't actually listened to the lyrics of a song or is tone deaf when it comes to irony. Ronald Reagan famously ran into trouble when he tried to appropriate Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," which (hello!) is about the hardships suffered by soldiers during and after Vietnam.

And refusing to learn the lessons of the past (granted, there aren't a lot of toe-tappers out there by known conservatives), John McCain has recently been playing John Mellencamp's ''Our Country'' and ''Pink Houses,'' prompting this response from the artist's publicist, and a letter from Mellencamp asking McCain to rethink his playlist:

You know, here's a guy running around saying, "I'm a true conservative.'' Well, if you're such a true conservative, why are you playing songs that have a very populist pro-labor message written by a guy who would find no argument if you characterized him as left of center?''

:-D  Oh, didn't that just make my day!

The McCain campaign has since taken Mellencamp out of their campaign stop lineup.