‘Dem Aid’ – Movement To Draft John Mellencamp For Indiana Senate Bid

by Tommy Christopher | 4:30 pm, February 16th, 2010

» 4 comments

On the heels of Senator Evan Bayh‘s (D-Indiana) announcement of his impending breakup with Congress, and the accompanying lurch it leaves Democrats in, a movement has sprung up to draft heartland rocker John Mellencamp to run for the seat. Shortly after Bayh’s announcement, a “Draft John Mellencamp for Senate!” Facebook page appeared.

Crazier things have happened, and just how crazy is this, anyway?

Conventional wisdom would argue against Mellencamp politically, as he’s on record as not thinking Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were liberal enough. However, he has some strong positives as a candidate in Indiana.

First of all, you can’t beat him for name recognition, especially now that he has settled on one.

He’s well-positioned to take advantage of the powerful but ill-defined populist atmosphere among voters. Both in the state and nationally, Mellencamp has generated a lot of goodwill with working people by virtue of his Farm Aid concerts, and he’s managed to retain working-class authenticity despite being a superstar.

As Daily Kos diarist jolculbe points out, he also doesn’t have a record to run from. With anti-incumbent sentiment running high, being a total outsider might be an advantage.

Finally, aside from his utter lack of experience, not the liability it once was, Mellencamp is tough to assail. His heartland street cred is so great that, despite his political leanings, John McCain made heavy use of Mellencamp’s catalog at campaign events before being asked to stop. The guy’s image is as American as it gets.

Plus, who wouldn’t look forward to campaign ads featuring “Jack” and “Diane” talking financial reform at the kitchen table, or rocking out to re-tooled Mellencamp classics like “Healthcare in the USA?”

Evan Bayh, Evan Bayh retirement, Farm Aid, John Mellencamp, Tommy Christopher

Puter Boi

Hi, TC!
This might prove to be a problem….maybe not…who knows? Just sharin….
VIA…Instapundit and Nick Gillespie:

Take it away, Matt Welch, who wrote in 2005:

John Cougar Mellencamp, as we know too well, was born in a small town. Seymour, Indiana, to be exact, population 20,000. The Coug is also the co-founder of Farm Aid, the 20-year-old annual concert to raise money and awareness for the beleaguered family farm. As he explained in an entertaining Washington Post profile last December,

“When Reagan was president, the way they treated the small family farm, running them out of business,” he says. “How in the hell can a small family farm compete with the laws leaning toward corporate farming? What’s the little guy going to do?”

Well, one option for “the little guy” — including the little guy whose blood relative has sold 30 million records domestically — is to gobble up hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars….

According to the good folks at the Environmental Working Group, who maintain an eminently searchable database of farm subsidies, there were 34 recipients with the last name of “Mellencamp” between 1995-2003. Of those, a full 22 come from the Hoosier State, including 12 in the small town of … Seymour! Here’s a list of Seymour’s subsidized Mellencamps:

$383,673.00 James A. and Michael Mellencamp
$249,590.95 George Mellencamp
$157,219.56 David K. Mellencamp
$152,639.65 Mark Mellencamp
$152,424.00 Gary W. Mellencamp
$110,052.72 Mary Mellencamp
$46,172.47 Elsie Mellencamp
$30,527.87 Matthew Grover Mellencamp
$10,929.31 Frederick J. Mellencamp
$2,582.14 Jerry Ross Mellencamp
$1,015.00 Victor H. Mellencamp
$420.00 Andrew Mellencamp

That’s $1.14 million for the small-town Mellencamps.
timzank

FYI, us backwoods Hoosiers ain’t all that thrilled with Ol Johnny Cougar anymore. He wouldn’t stand a chance of being elected dog catcher here in Indiana. When you get BOO’d at a Colts game in Indy, you’re not exactly “one of us” anymore.

Just another out of touch multimillionaire aging rocker without a clue. Damn shame, he was a fine musician until he stopped singing and started politic’in.
thehoosierslant

Evan Bayh – The Politician – Will Now Fade Away

read it here at:

http://thehoosierslant.com/
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