You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
Skip Navigation

Quadrennial Springsteen Campaign Song Blogging

One more, very critical note from Toledo...

Clinton's entrance music today was Bruce Springsteen's "Land of Hope and Dreams."  For those unfamiliar with the song, it's a live cut from his New York City concert a few years ago.  It's not quite your traditional campaign anthem: It's more reflective than euphoric, and a bit on the gritty side (i.e., the chrous references to "whores and gamblers," etc.)  But it's also, to my mind, one of the truest distillations of the American ethos I've ever heard on song. 

John Kerry actually used the song as its rally theme for a while in 2004, only to drop it.  (The campaign settled on yet another Springsteen song, "No Surrender.")  

Is that a good omen?  A bad one?  I have no idea.  But if you've never heard the song, definitely check it out.

--Jonathan Cohn