McCain swallowed whole by Obama’s rock crew

There are a lot of hot-button topics surging through the minds of Americans this election… There are a lot of hot-button topics surging through the minds of Americans this election season, like who can better pull the economy out of the depths of hell, who can better pull the army out of the depths of Iraq (or not) and who is more likely to die of old age while in the White House. As an informed voter, of course, the above debates plague my mind and haunt my dreams. But as a music columnist, there’s another debate raging ‘mdash; who’s got the better rock stars in his corner? Now before you political folk call me an idiot and burn an effigy on the Union lawn, let’s get one thing clear: In no way do I think anyone should base his vote on which candidate has a better cache of musicians. That would be stupid. Watch the debates (tonight’s should be downright hysterical!) and make an informed decision. There’s no harm, though, in pitting presidential iPods against each other. That said, this week a handful of the world’s coolest artists announced that they’d be performing free ‘mdash; note: FREE ‘mdash; concerts around the country to support one of the candidates. These acts include John Legend, Jay-Z, Billy Joel and the one and only Bruce Springsteen, and they’ll be throwing down for Obama throughout the month of October. Other Obama rockers have included The Decemberists, Kanye West, John Mayer, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and many, many others. In maybe the coolest fusion of politics influencing art ever, the original members of The Grateful Dead are reuniting for a one-off show in support of Obama Oct. 13. Unfortunately, The Dead picked, of all possible venues, to play at Penn State. Blast! Nonetheless, it seems that, even more than the 2004 Bush-Kerry election, the rock stars have aligned to support Obama. End of story, right? No? Ah, it appears I’ve forgotten about McCain. And, apparently, so has the entirety of rock ‘n’ roll. The closest thing McCain has to a relevant rock star supporting him is, embarrassingly, Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee. Yup, that’s Springsteen vs. Yankee. Hell, even the hillbilly supreme Toby Keith has hinted at supporting Obama. Unsurprisingly, the winner, by complete and utter defeat, is Obama. But the story doesn’t stop there. Several of the artists whose music McCain used on the campaign trail actually asked him to stop, and some not so politely. Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne sued the Ohio Republicans who used his song ‘Running on Empty’ in an ad attacking Obama. Classic rockers Heart did just about the same thing. Van Halen made McCain stop using the hit ‘Right Now,” and John Mellencamp pulled the plug on ‘Our Country.’ It seems that even if McCain did have some good tunes on his favorite playlist, he’d have to keep them to himself. So what does this mean for the election? The likely truth is very little. Few people will step into the voting booth in November clueless and, when a Kanye West song pops into their head, will be suddenly inspired to go Obama. Still, the function of musicians getting involved in politics is, as it has always been, to raise awareness. When your uninformed, first-time voter sees Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder publicly saying, ‘My name is Eddie Vedder, and I approve this Obama message,’ which he has, the hope is that said first-timer will go online and check it out for himself. But in terms of the actual candidates’ musical support, let’s just say this ‘mdash; although Daddy Yankee’s name suggests that he’s very patriotic, nobody beats The Boss.