Nov 7, 2009 at 12:26pm
From today's Star-Ledger - It took only two days for Gov.-elect Chris Christie to sell out. In an interview with The Star-Ledger that appeared in Friday?s editions, Christie put out a plea for Bruce Springsteen to play at the inauguration. He sounded like Marcia Brady pleading with Davy Jones to play at her school dance. "I?m not beneath begging," Christie said. That?s good, because until we get a weather report that says, "Ice storm hits hell," politics says it probably isn?t going to happen. Springsteen, the homegrown, raspy-voiced poet of the working class, spent a lot of time and money campaigning to send George W. Bush home to Texas. That would be the same President Bush who gave Christie his job as U.S. attorney, which set him on his way to being elected governor. Still, we?d like to see Springsteen put politics aside and do it for New Jersey. The way things are going in the state these days, we all need a Kumbaya moment ? Republicans, Democrats and independents ? just with a better song.I would say - what the heck, why not? Although, this could be a classic case of "Be careful what you wish for". Not that Mr. Christie doesn't have people that he admires giving him grief. There was a guest column in the New York Times the other day by the author Harlan Coben, who grew up with Mr. Christie in Livingston, NJ, and has stayed friends with him. A portion - Chris and I are in our junior year. We?re on a special committee to help select the new principal, interviewing the candidates and bored to tears, until one tells us he used to be vice principal of Freehold High, Bruce Springsteen?s alma mater. ?Did you know Bruce?? we ask. He says yes and we practically fall off our chairs. After firing a bunch of ?Was Bruce the coolest thing ever?? questions at the man, we?re satisfied. We vote for him and he gets the job. Springsteen is one issue Chris and I agree on. A few weeks ago, during a Springsteen show at Giants Stadium, we texted back and forth about the pure joy of hearing the Boss play the ?Born to Run? album in sequence. He argues that ?Thunder Road? is the best song, but I side with ?Jungleland.? The texts about the concert continue the next morning before I shift gears and tell him that I abhor his stand against gay marriage. I call him out on this issue, even saying that ?it?s not you.? He does not get defensive. We agree to discuss this when there is more time. And we will. He will remain calm. I will probably be the one who gets heated. He?s used to this. As an aside, I can agree with Mr. Christie about "Thunder Road". But anyway, something about Mr. Springsteen and a room full of Republicans seems like an interesting scenario to contemplate. So, I vote yes! Thoughts?
Last year, Mr. Springsteen sort of played with the fact that he'd been given twelve minutes, announcing that he'd be there "for the next twelve minutes". I assume that there will be no near-disastrous knee-slides in this year's Super Bowl halftime show.