Not only does Obama think that song is about him, he counts it as one of his favorites.Photo: Getty Images
Blender just released a list of Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s top-ten favorite songs, and, like anything the candidates do that shouldn’t really matter, we feel duty bound to scrutinize it for political ramifications. McCain’s list contains two Abba songs in his top three, which is two more ABBA songs than you might expect from a grizzled 71-year-old Vietnam vet. But Obama’s top ten is bookended by what seem like two unintentionally weird picks. For a candidate whose detractors frequently refer to him as inexperienced and unprepared to lead the country, it almost seems like self-satire for Obama to choose “Ready or Not” by the Fugees (first line: “Ready or not, here I come”) as his favorite song. But even though it seems like a track Stephen Colbert might use if he were concocting a list of Obama’s favorite songs, that can be forgiven. It’s the number ten pick that makes you wonder if any of Obama’s approximately one billion campaign aides are even paying attention.
That’s because Obama’s tenth-favorite song of all-time is apparently “Yes We Can,” by Will.I.Am, from the popular viral video featuring ScarJo, John Legend, the sister from The Fresh Prince, Michael from Lost, and a bunch of other people who are less recognizable. Didn’t anyone in the campaign think it was an odd choice for someone who is right now facing allegations of vanity to proclaim that a tribute song composed entirely of lines from his own speeches is one of his favorite songs ever? Maybe he just wanted to spread word of the song to those who were in comas, in space, or not yet born at the time of the video’s release, in February, when everyone else on Earth saw it. But that doesn’t seem to outweigh the fact that it supplies more credence, however superficial, to the Arrogant Obama narrative. You didn’t see McCain picking “Bomb Bomb Iran” as one of his favorite tunes. Although that would have been hilarious. —Dan Amira
White House D.J. Battle [Blender]
