Senator John Cougar Mellencamp??

[FORD]

Seems that worthless DLC tool and corporate whore Evan Bayh is not running for re election to the Senate. Good riddance to that piece of shit, but who's going to replace him?

Why not Indiana's most famous liberal populist, John Mellencamp?

If Al Franken and Herr Gropenator can get elected, why the Hell not?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Someone call Larry Bird....

[LoungeMachine]

Or Larry the interventionist....

FORD's on something

[Unchainme]

Someone call Larry Bird....

Or Bob Knight.

Larry Bird is auctually pretty private and quiet now-a-days, hell even back in the day, I heard he wasn't exactly to public. Doubt he'd run for office.

But damn, was he a badass, my dad was a student at ISU at the time and STILL talks about how awesome he was.

[FORD]

I think he could win. Hell, if you look at the first article on his website, you might think he was a political candidate already.

[Unchainme]

I think he could win. Hell, if you look at the first article on his website, you might think he was a political candidate already.

Based purely on name recognition? Yeah, I mean he's pretty well thought of by Hoosiers. My dad loves his music and he's politically a conservative.

[FORD]

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[BigBadBrian]

Why not Indiana's most famous liberal populist, John Mellencamp?

You ever hear him speak? He makes Sarah Palin sound like a Rhode's Scholar.

[LoungeMachine]

You ever hear him speak? He makes Sarah Palin sound like a Rhode's Scholar.

But then again, so do you......

[bueno bob]

He makes Sarah Palin sound like a Rhode's Scholar.

Hello signature...

[Panamark]

Hey where do melons go for their holidays ??

John Cougar's Melon camp !!!

Of course !

Hey JCM's english is better than Arnie Cali-Boi !

[BigBadBrian]

Hello signature...

I never said she was a member of Mensa. Just more intelligent than you and most other liberals...including all of the "progressives" on this board.

Have a great day, Shortbus!

[Panamark]

BBB !

Welcome Back,I never shook you up too much as
Oz politics are not really a big thing here.
But great to have you around again.....
Your reputation proceeds you,
good onya mate !

[Va Beach VH Fan]

You ever hear him speak? He makes Sarah Palin sound like a Rhode's Scholar.

It's Rhodes Scholar BBB, I'm here to help...


For example, one of your favorites I'm sure, Rachel Maddow is one....

[FORD]

Looks like The Nation is on board......

Senator Mellencamp?
John Nichols John Nichols Tue Feb 16, 8:14 am ET

The Nation -- The guy who put populist politics on the charts with a song title "Pink Houses" John Mellencamp performed at the White House last week, as part of a program titled: "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement."

The Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame member sang the song "Jim Crow" with veteran folkie Joan Baez -- as well as a terrific song version of "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" -- on a night that also featured performances by Smokey Robinson, Natalie Cole, Yolanda Adams, the Five Blind Boys from Alabama and Bob Dylan, among others.

That was powerful company, but Mellencamp was up to it.

For the past quarter century, he has been penning and performing smart, often very political songs -- focusing on the farm crisis, economic hard times and race relations. He's been a key organizer of Farm Aid and other fund-raising events for good causes, and he's been a steady presence on the campaign trail in recent years, appearing at the side of numerous Democratic presidential candidates, including Barack Obama.

So, could Mellencamp perform in the U.S. Senate?

Could he be the right replacement for retiring Senator Evan Bayh, D-Indiana?

Forget the blah-blah-blah about celebrities in politics. We crossed that bridge decades ago.

The question is whether this celebrity makes the right connections with this state.

Mellencamp certainly has the home-state credibility. Few rockers have been so closely associated with a state as Mellencamp with Indiana.

Mellencamp has a history of issue-oriented political engagement that is the rival of any of the Democratic politicians who are being considered as possible Bayh replacements.

And Mellencamp has something else. He has a record of standing up for disenfranchised and disenchanted working-class families in places like his hometown of Seymour, Indiana.

In other words, he's worthy of the consideration that has led to talk of a "Draft John Mellencamp" movement. In fact, he might be just enough of an outlier to energize base votes and to make independent voters look again at the Democratic column.

Mellencamp's not making any campaign moves.

He's a savvy player who has been around power politics for a long time -- he counts Bill Clinton as a pal -- and he's smart enough (and humble enough) to know that the leap from rock star to senate candidate is a long one.

But John Hall, the songwriter and leader of the band Orleans, is now a two-term Democratic congressman from New York.

And the Republicans have run more than a few actors for jobs like senator, governor and even president.

Notably, President Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign wanted to use the song "Pink Houses" at campaign events. And John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign did indeed use it, even as Mellencamp explained that the Arizona senator might not fully "get" the point of the song about working families living on the backroads of America.

So Mellencamp has already crossed some partisan and ideological lines.

That's more than can be said for most Senate prospects -- be they Democrats or Republicans.