From a reader:
Jonah, The Boss’ endorsement today is a perfect partner to your points about Obama and the 80s. Springsteen (and Mellencamp and songs like Billy Joel’s “Allentown”) provided the soundtrack to the Cosmopolitan Liberal 80s. Obama and his cronies can’t be out of touch with the great unwashed – they listened to the same Springsteen albums. I was a union carpenter in the 80s and, though we all listened to Springsteen and Mellencamp (though personally, I was a Steve Earle man), none of us took their “man of the people” bulls**t literally. Everyone knew they were poseurs, hoping to get a little street cred by commisserating with the downtrodden masses, if never actually rubbing elbows with us. We all knew The Boss’ lifestyle outstripped even our own bosses, by miles. And we know that the Barry Obamas and Hillary Clintons and John Edwards will never be anything more than tourists through our lives, gawking and pointing at our supposed misery, and never able to understand how we can suffer it.