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"Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and the couple's two young daughters, was met with a roar of acclaim as he took the stage to the strains of U2's "City of Blinding Lights." [NYO]

"The more you see the less you know/The less you find out as you go/I knew much more then than I do now." [U2 "City of Blinding Lights"]


"Barack Obama has won the Iowa caucuses. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel moved by this. An African-American man wins a closely fought campaign in a pivotal state. He beats two strong opponents, including the mighty Clinton machine. He does it in a system that favors rural voters. He does it by getting young voters to come out to the caucuses...This is a huge moment. It's one of those times when a movement that seemed ethereal and idealistic became a reality and took on political substance." [David Brooks, New York Times]

"A self-ordained professor's tongue/Too serious to fool/Spouted out that liberty/Is just equality in school/"Equality," I spoke the word/As if a wedding vow./Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.." [Bob Dylan]

Also to note: Not one presidential candidate (according to a quick search on Wikipedia) used a song by an African-American as a campaign song. The closest thing was when Bob Dole ripped off Sam and Dave's Soul Man turning it into the soulless doleful Dole Man in 96. Obama, when he started out, was using "Better Way," a song by Ben Harper, who is half-black, but sometime along the way switched to the all-white U2. Weird and duly noted.