the tindog coffeehouse

Blender Magazine polled John McCain and Barack Obama to find out each of the candidate’s top 10 favorite songs.

McCain prefers ABBA (2 songs on the list, including “Dancing Queen” at #1) and Merle Haggard, while Obama lists Bruce Springsteen, The Fugees, and will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” (a song about Obama himself) among his favorites. Both candidates seemed to agree on Frank Sinatra.

Taking the role of devil’s advocate, it would be easy to take a potshot at McCain here. ABBA? The Platters? Are his political views as old and out of touch as his taste in music?

But then there’s Obama’s list. I don’t know. For some reason, it just doesn’t seem very sincere. U2? Nina Simone? How very hip and cool and trendy. A hundred bucks says that some staffer answered this question for him after doing some market research to see what would appeal most to his base.

In that regard, both candidates’ answers are very telling, wouldn’t you agree?

This reminds me of the question posed to President Bush a while back about what music is on his iPod, and he answered The Beatles, which raised the eyebrows of a lot of folks because at the time none of The Beatles’ music was available on iTunes.

So maybe the question for McCain and Obama should be, how many of those songs on your iPod are actually legal?

(A couple of sidenotes:

1.  Yes, it’s probably a stretch to suggest that McCain owns an iPod since he can barely work a computer. The question was what is their favorite songs, regardless of whether they’re on an MP3 player or 8-track.

2.  For the life of me, I can’t erase the image of John McCain dancing around in a sequined jumpsuit singing “Dancing Queen” at the top of his lungs. Yes, I have a twisted mind sometimes, and yes, I’m sorry I’ve now put that same image in your head.)