Barack Obama: 'Ready or not'; John McCain: 'Dancing Queen'
We missed this when it first posted a couple of weeks ago (maybe our iPod headphones were too loud), but the folks over at Blender have an item up with lists of Barack Obama and John McCain's favorite songs.
And before you get all huffy in the comments section about this being trivial, we know, we know, but it can't all be foreign affairs and electoral strategy (and note the light comments on those weightier posts. You love the fluff -- you just won't admit it).
Top of Obama's list? The Fugees' "Ready or Not" (you can almost hear his critics mumbling, "not!)." McCain's top pick: Abba's "Dancing Queen," which is a bit of a surprise -- can't quite envision him dancing in his front row seat at "Mamma Mia!"
The rest of the lists evidence the generational overlap. Both have a Frank Sinatra song -- "You'd Be So Easy to Love" for Obama and "I've Got You Under My Skin" for McCain -- but that's the only common ground. Obama crosses generations -- and you have to wonder what committee actually conjured up both candidates' lists -- with the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" and Kanye West's "Touch the Sky."
McCain, though, keeps the dial on the oldies station, with Roy Orbison's, "Blue Bayou," Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December," The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and The Platters' "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."
Which brings us to the predictable point: What songs would you pick as the favorites for different political figures? Hank Williams' "Your Cheating Heart" for John Edwards? The Beatles' "Revolution" for Ron Paul? "Not Fade Away" for Hillary Clinton?
Regardless, the video below would work for any of them.
-- Scott Martelle
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Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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