Via Juanita, I see that John McCain is using John Mellencamp songs in his campaign. And Mellencamp isn’t happy about that.
Uplifting heartland rock must have seemed like a smart pick, but there’s just one problem: Mellencamp is an ardent Democrat. And, until recently, he supported John Edwards – who had been playing “Our Country” and “Small Town” at his rallies. Mellencamp hasn’t yet made a public response, but his reps are quietly reaching out to McCain and asking him to stop playing his tunes. (McCain’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Who remembers when Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”, until The Boss told him to knock it off? I can’t decide which was funnier, when Springsteen suggested that “Johnny 99” would be more a more appropriate song for Reagan to use, or the fact that no one in Reagan’s team understood the lyrics to “Born in the USA” enough to realize how ill-fitting that song was for their purposes. Take a lesson from this, Republican Presidential candidates, especially those of you over 65: Leave the rock music to the kids. The songs are about you, just not in the way you want them to be.