The College Voter

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Colin Kalmbacher is a correspondent and contributor for The College Voter from The University of Texas at Austin.

Editors Note: Post best read while listening to “Streets of Philadelphia”

Well, he sure as hell ain’t no superdelegate but he is tougher than the rest.

Yesterday Bruce Springsteen rolled out his long-awaited (but not really surprising) endorsement of Barack Obama in a news post on his official website.

“Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest. He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President.”

He even took a not-so-subtle dig at Hillary Clinton.

“At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships…they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man’s life and vision… often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues.”

Ouch.

It usually takes policies/tactics out of the Bush-Rove playbook to get such a stark and stunning rebuke from a man as good natured and gregarious as The Boss. Oh, wait…

Of course celebrity endorsements are generally as good as the paper they’re not even printed on but, this time, at least, Bruce Springsteen is different.

In the light of the non-controversy over Obama’s comments regarding voters who “cling to guns or religion”, the words and support of the world’s foremost working class hero have got to be more than welcome by the Obama campaign

More than that, though, they can only be read as vindication of the very sentiment that Barack Obama recently expressed about small town and working class voters.

What kept Bruce waiting so long must have been this fabricated firestorm. Ever the showman, Bruce was just waiting for the right moment to jump into the fray. And, as if on cue, Bruce Springsteen has leaped to Obama’s rescue following his deft analysis of rural voting trends and politics.

Let me be one college voter to spell it out for the chattering classes and Beltway blowhards:

There is an honest to goodness bitterness that many Americans (not just rural folks) feel right now.

Most Americans live it day in and day out. If anything, Obama didn’t use words that were strong enough.

And it’s not new. It’s been there for awhile.

If the polls are any indication, this may have actually helped Obama, giving him a chance to go on the offensive and elaborate on his remarks.

And, if initial reactions by actual working class voters are any indication (and what else ought to be?) Americans have been waiting - no - absolutely clamoring for a politician to genuinely confront this issue and give it to the rest of the country, straight up.

Who better to have Obama’s back on this one than Mr. Born in the U.S.A. himself?

Yeah, now Bruce lives in the mansion on the hill and his kids will grow up decidedly not working class. But, regardless, Bruce knows where he came from.

In fact, as the years have gone on and Bruce’s music has progressed, he has become ever more the champion of the not just the average American, but the most downtrodden among us.

“They died building the railroads worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago they’re still dyin now
The hands that built the country were always trying to keep down”

The truth is that there’s not an author alive that comes close to Springsteen’s portrayal of late 20^th century and early 21^st century America and her people.

The man understands us. He gets this country. He loves this country. He is this country.

It couldn’t have been clearer a few days ago in Dallas…

I was infused with religious fervor by seeing Bruce and his E Street Band at the American Airlines Center along with 20,000 mostly white folks, a great number of which I’d wager are not the latte-sipping liberals that Obama is supposedly appealing to. There certainly weren’t very many African-Americans there.

Directly in front of me was a group of loud, beer-swilling, young, white males wearing ball caps and nice shirts. My mom affectionately referred to them with an academic term: “frat boys.”

It kind of warmed my heart. These are supposedly the kinds of folks who have turned off to Brruuuuuce in the past decade and a half. And, sure, he doesn’t have megastar status circa 1985 or anything, but he can still pack ‘em in like nobody else. He nearly sold out the home of the choke-tacular (yet wildly popular in North Texas) Dallas Mavericks on a Sunday night.

And, despite grumblings in 2004 about his role in the Vote for Change tour, I think it’s a safe bet that Bruce’s stature among middle of the road, independent white voters is generally as pristine as can be hoped for nowadays.

The point is that Bruce Springsteen still finds a way to speak to and for Americans from all walks of life. When you get down to measuring the worth of celebrity endorsements, having The Boss at your back is the Gold Standard.

Especially if he keeps saying things like this:

“He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music.”

Obama-Springsteen ‘08 anyone?

Colin Kalmbacher is a twenty-something white male, born and bred in Fort Worth, Texas — though he currently resides in Austin. Not one much for consistency, he enjoys politics, love and misanthropy when not singing or baking vegan cookies. He’s also a huge fan of Talladega Nights.