the boss decides the election...

[Ken Gargett]

not "comment" - just an article from the nyt that i could not resist.

Timothy Egan |The Boss Delivers the White House

The kingmaker in the 2012 presidential election? Why, The Boss, of course. In the way that the first flutters of a butterfly’s wing in Africa can set loose a chain of events that leads to a hurricane, Gov. Chris Christie’s long odyssey to meet his idol Bruce Springsteen may turn out to be the thing that decided the race.

Stay with me here: Christie worships Springsteen, and has been to 130 concerts, but his fan love has never been returned. As a lifelong pilgrim in the Church of Bruuuuuce, he cites lyrics at the oddest of public occasions, does air guitar riffs in his down time, and swaps fetishist stories of bootleg tapes.

When he was elected governor in 2009, he so wanted the Springsteen soundtrack to be a part of his triumph – but he was spurned.

When Christie, to the surprise of right-wing absolutists, embraced and praised President Obama for his quick response to the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, many conspiracy theorists thought he was playing for 2016. The idea was, it would be better to have an open race for president than to wait out the second term of the man for whom he has been a chief surrogate, Mitt Romney.

And yet, there seems to have been another more complex (and more obvious) motive in play.

I told my friends, only half in jest, that Christie was really after a chance to meet Springsteen. That he would do anything, even kill the momentum of his party’s nominee, for a bromance with Jersey’s favorite son. This would explain why he was playing nice. Sure enough, on Monday, during his now-daily call to Christie, the president handed the phone off to Springsteen. The governor may never clean that ear again.

A few days earlier, he had met Springsteen at the benefit concert in New York. Afterward, Christie went home and wept.

“We hugged,” Christie said at a news conference on Monday. “He told me it’s official: we’re friends.”

So the Boss loves the new Big Man. “I’ll treasure it forever,” Christie added.

Now: the exit polls show the hurricane had only a minor effect on voter attitudes. But if, as many believe, the chance for Obama to appear bipartisan and presidential in the last week of the campaign with one of his most strident critics was just enough to tip independent voters in swing states — well, I rest my case.

In that case, it wasn’t Sandy that determined the election. It was the man who wrote “Sandy.”

Of course, this embrace may doom Christie among the party base; those elephants never forget. Rush Limbaugh, the most mean-spirited among the knuckle-draggers, called Christie “fat” and “a fool” last week. I have a feeling Christie would say that’s a small price to pay for the chance to meet Springsteen.

Timothy Egan is an Opinionator columnist.

[AverageJoe83]

not "comment" - just an article from the nyt that i could not resist.

Timothy Egan |The Boss Delivers the White House

Rush Limbaugh, the most mean-spirited among the knuckle-draggers,

LOL priceless. Nice share!

[ritan]

I enjoyed this. Good one!

[OZCUBAN]

Couldn't resist could you Ken :-)

P.s the Boss rocks