Why Obama should drop Joss Stone

                                                                                             Devon-born songstress Joss Stone is arguably the most successful female artist to hail from these shores in US musical history. Her third album, Introducing Joss Stone, entered at number two in the US album charts - the highest ever new entry for a British female solo artist. But despite her indisputable achievement on the notoriously hard-to-crack stateside scene, is she necessarily the wisest choice to record the campaign theme song for Barack Obama?

Most commentators think not, and I am inclined to agree. Her adolescent predilection for fluorescent hair dye and her self-indulgent rhapsodies as she drops chocolate all over her top in The Most Counterproductive Flake Advert Ever should rule out the shoeless warbler for her irritation factor alone, but there is an even more salient point to consider.

She is not American.

While this shouldn't matter - and wouldn't if she was recording for the McCain campaign - it does feed into one of the biggest negatives the Democratic nominee is currently grappling with - his perceived foreignness.

You can hear the right-wing indignation already. The Michelle Malkins of this world will denounce him as a dangerous anti-American Marxist for his ties to a country displaying the notorious first symptom of the Communist disease that is socialised medicine, and Fox News will probably have to demote another anchor for alleging sympathies with the brutal terrorists that are the Devonshire Liberation Front.

Meanwhile the McCain campaign will publicly decry such foolish paranoia, but quietly fan out its surrogates across the airwaves to question why the would-be president doesn't favour home-grown musical offerings, particularly at a time when impoverished US musicians are struggling to fill up their stretch Hummers at the gas pumps.

This may seem a matter of astonishing triviality, but then, to most, so did the flag pin/Star-Spangled Banner hand position/inability to bowl affairs. Yet they nevertheless severely damaged Obama among the demographics with which he is struggling most.

So forget Joss Stone, Obama, and pick an American. Any American.

Just not Ludacris...

Comments

[John Morgan]

Well, the fact that she is not American should have no bearing on his decision, he is not American either.

[David Rooney]

Why not Ludacris? Oh. Because whoever produced Clinton's 'documentary' "The Man From Hope" knows better. There is no way she can spin gangsta rap unless you're running ads for Vegas.

Hollywood is so unique. Watching them put a presidential candidate together like they edit film is better than watching the final version. Problem is that what they cut out is far more intriguing than what they leave in.

On the editor's floor you'll find clips of a Chicago lawyer, gun and bible clingers, someone trying to stuff Michelle back into the genie's bottle, dissapointed wounded soldiers in hospital beds, 'kitchen sink' speechs in Europe, Ludacris.

This - the Joss Stone thang - is trivial. But if you can't even nail down the trivial issues like finding an American to sing for an American election what does that portend?

[Adrian]

Senator Obama, please choose Ludacris and show your true colors.

[Obama Nanny State]

Brilliant! Obama is, however, a real scumbag.

Thanks for the analysis!

A Jay Z / Ludacris combo song is fitting.

[Brien Comerford]

She's a British vegetarian who knows that a meatless diet reduces global warming. He's an American carnivore who has never mentioned that a vegetarian diet is good for the environment.

[Jesse Oldershaw]

Dunno. Maybe Obama's playing the old "America's standing in the world" card. Could be a good idea, actually, though if that was the case I personally would have picked someone from the Iraqi, Afghan, Palestinian, Lebanese, etc, resistance instead of Joss Stone (not that Obama has voiced any sympathy yet for anyone who actually SAYS they are sick of being victimized by American imperialism). Then again I suppose you could say the current president dissed a lot of ordinary people in the UK by taking advantage of the fact they had an ever-eager poodle instead of a leader, which ended us up with a lot of dead British soldiers, plus prolonged involvement in an illegal, ubiquitiously unpopular war, plus moral and perhaps legal responsibity for over a million dead Iraqis and a pretty destroyed country still being pillaged by (you guessed it) many British corporations, plus British soldiers committing the most heinous, deadly torture over there (think Baha Mousa) and the dismantling of civil liberties over here (think about the Belmarsh court cases and the chill factor that may be arising because of how heavy-handedly political dissent is being policed nowadays), not to mention mountains of debt right as we tumble into recession. So, yeah, I'll take Joss Stone as a token gesture. Cheers Barack!

[D]

All points taken, Hannah... But what about when (Irish supergroup) U2's song, "City Of Blinding Lights" was designated as Sen. Obama's first campaign song? (...and before that, Sen. Hillary Clinton had chosen a Celine Dion song as hers...) Hmmmm... All seems pretty silly and largely irrelevant to me, but if you have the space to fill, well, keep goin, I guess... :) In the meantime, I'll a) anxiously await the new song from the talented Ms. Stone and b) probably just go read someone who's actually discussing some of the real issues at play in this election.

[Bill]

Baraq should have his theme song done by Natalie Maines. She fits his politics and is a talented singer.

[Sunny]

Heh. Spot on.

[Jim]

The statement: "While this shouldn't matter - and wouldn't if she was recording for the McCain campaign" shows how little you really know about American politics.

[Bob Evans]

So, are you suggesting that Mr. Obama portray himself as something he is not? Wouldn't that be encouraging him to be a hypocrite?

[Michael Jackson]

Clearly the author of this article is delusional. So many liberals would absolutely die to have the conservative backlash that they dream about. Most people don't know who this young lady is and most people don't care. There is NOT going to be a conservative backlash against her. She is young, pretty and dumber than a box of rocks. No one cares what she thinks or doesn't except other pretty, young airhead ladies--the vast majority of whom don't vote. One big: who cares?

[jeremy]

Ha, ha. What a dumb article. Perhaps British journalists ought to stop thinking they understand the dynamics of US presidential elections, because most do not.

[judithod]

And why does Obama need a campaign theme song? Can't recall any previous presidential candidates having campaign theme songs, but then again, perhaps those songs and/or candidates weren't memorable. Frankly, believe the whole idea of a theme song plays right into Obama's popularity being based on an "American idol" celebrity status versus the fact that he has no professional qualifications for the job of U.S. president.

[arlecchino]

When you say it shouldn't matter that Joss Stone is a Brit and that it wouldn't matter if she were singing for John McCain, you only reveal how ignorant of--or, rather, foreign to--the American scene you really are. While normal Americans may enjoy many things European, we don't look to Europe for our cultural or political validation. You have to graduate from a place like Harvard (which most Americans believe has as much connection to the real world these days as Mary Poppins) to think like that. And McCain, as you know, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, following which, as a POW in Vietnam, he was schooled in a reality that Obama might, with practice, learn to declaim eloquently but which he could never understand. You're right: it's a mistake for Obama to have Stone singing his theme song, but it's an even greater mistake that someone--a foreigner no less--has to point it out to him.

[kerry livermore]

If she wasn't good enough for Mark Ronson she isn't good enough for Obama. Hope the Yanks don't get to hear the details.

[Franziska]

Maybe you are just reading too much into this and Obama just likes Joss Stone and her music?

[Bill]

Just a quick question - are Americans really so dumb that they will be influenced to vote one way or the other by which vapid, superficial, here today gone tomorrow pop nonentity is chosen to warble the candidates election theme song?

Forget that, I've just remembered 'Things Can Only Get Better'.

[Mike]

I have a good one for both candidates: Metallica's Master of Puppets.

[Bob Collins]

Is this considered reporting? This is a fluff piece not worth reading. What matters is in November when Americans go to the polls, and in the quiet all alone, they cast their secret vote. The vote of what is truly in their heart and often not what they will admit over the phone to pollsters.

[JOHN CHUCKMAN, TORONTO]

Yes, you have stated the case clearly.

The choice of singer is a mistake.

And it is, indeed, a trivial matter, as you say.

But I believe it is no chjallenge to demonstrate that American national elections are almost always about the trivial.

From defending Quemoy and Matsu (where are those wind-swept rocks located readers may ask) to non-existent missile gaps to
a wife's "Republican" cloth coat to flag pins. And never forget, the chimp in the White House ran around in 2000 telling people he never even read the international section of the newspaper.

That level of debate in American elections is part of what keep the voting from having any bearing on the direction of American policy.

The empire's establishment goes on about its business regardless of the election outcome.

[Jah i]

It is unreal how some of the commentators here are decrying Obama as not American enough.

He is not only American, he is as American as anyone.

It is ironic that anyone would be decried as not ''American''!

[jack]

well stone was o.k for james brown
and obama is a black guy - he likes soul
and otis aint around - so whats the problem-

bush invited stone for tea at the white house with her mother when she was seventeen -

you miss strange -are a good looking woman
i figure an american man who takes you to dinner - might feel proud of that and also the fact you are an English woman knows something about the country -or does he tell
you - not to voice an opinion in the companey of other Americans

this America for Americans crap
feeds into one whole lot of bigotry
not just in America -but also in reaction to it

obama idea has a lot of positives
if one cares to crawl out of a racial box

[JB]

All the posters saying "Brit journo's do not understand American Politics" Please state at which point she fails to grasp the "dynamics".

[Raynor]

I don't think a British theme song crooner will even put a bump on the graph. It's the kind of thing that only riles up the opponent's firm supporters. McCain's backers may make hay out of it, but the undecideds -- who will be deciding this election -- will yawn. It's too trivial.

(I didn't even know campaigns had official theme songs, never mind official singers)