McCain's serial, unrepentant larceny

I can't believe this is a story yet again. First Mellencamp told him to back off, then he helped himself to the work of Tom Petty, ABBA, Frankie Valli, Jackson Brown, John Hall and Mike Myers. Even after I offered the campaign some very sage (and free!) advice, they're still continuing their pillaging rampage! Their latest victim is Van Halen.

Will it be their last?

Last night during the convention, I heard the campaign playing Johnny B. Goode -- what do you think are the chances that John "Gimme Gimme" McCain got permission from Chuck Berry* before he helped himself to his music? We'll see...

*Chuck Berry did perform for a real president at the White House once -- at the request of Jimmy Carter.

At Last, PA!

The dog had some minor surgery today, but she's back home and feeling fine. While she convalesces, we'll be following the returns from Pennsylvania...

UPDATE: just an aside: I've been watching the coverage all evening, and have noticed that both candidates have played John Mellencamp songs. But interestingly, Mellencamp himself (along with his wife) appeared on stage with Obama in Indiana this evening. Will the campaign music issue resurface?

	Democrat (%, #votes, delegates)					Republican (%, #votes, delegates)
Tuesday April 22	Pennsylvania
	Clinton	55%	1,260,444	(83)		McCain	73%	587,210	(0)
	Obama	45%	1,046,220	(73)		Paul	16%	128,483	(0)
						Huckabee	11%	91,430	(0)
100% reporting

Next up:
May 3: Guam
May 6: North Carolina and Indiana
May 13: West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky and Oregon
June 1: Puerto Rico
June 3: South Dakota and Montana

(Our long national nightmare continues ad nauseum...)

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.