When I ask "is it just me?" you're supposed to answer "why no Rob, it's not just you, that's another brilliant insight." Just so you know, that's one of the rules around here.

Anyway, is it just me? ...pause... or is this another example of the blue state/red state divide?

The New York Times: Bush's Playlist

sampling from President Bush's iPod; some songs were selected by Mark McKinnon, the chief media strategist in the 2004 campaign:

John Fogerty, "Centerfield"

Van Morrison, "New Biography," "Brown Eyed Girl"

John Hiatt, "Circle Back"

Alan Jackson

George Jones

Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets" Joni Mitchell, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care"

The Gourds, "El Paso"

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, "Swinging From the Chains of Love"

Stevie Ray Vaughan, "The House is Rockin' "

James McMurtry, "Valley Road"

The Thrills, "Say It Ain't So" The Knack, "My Sharona"

Emphasis added.

The rock songs (and the great Alejandro, with whom, oddly enough, I have pissed in an alley behind a club in Austin) get the song name and the artist, while the country songs get just the artist. As if to say, "here are the rock songs the President listens to and oh yeah he listens to country as well."

I'm kind of curious as to what George Jones songs he has on the ipod thingie. Shoot, you could tell me he had a Knack song he listens to and I would assume it was My Sharona. Since Johnny Cash (America's Shakespeare) passed, The Possum has a legitimate claim to be the living American country music legend. The New York Times must assume that only ignorant rednecks listen to country and wouldn't come across the article in their fancy big city paper.

Speaking of country legends, I've been watching the Loretta Lynn/Jack White collaboration video, for Portland Oregon. It's a weird song, but I like it. It's song of the day:

Well Portland Oregon and sloe gin fizz
If that ain't love then tell me what is
Well I lost my heart it didn't take no time
But that ain't all. I lost my mind in Oregon