Bruce Springsteen Sitting Out 2012 but Backs Obama
Email
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Bruce Springsteen threw his support behind Barack Obama in the 2008 election, but when it comes to 2012, “The Boss” won’t be hitting the campaign trail for the Boss of the United States.
Springsteen stumped for Obama in 2008 and John Kerry in 2004, but indicated Thursday during a news conference promoting his new album and tour in Paris that he won’t be on the campaign trail this time, adding that he is “not a professional campaigner.”
“I got into that sort of by accident. The Bush years were so horrific that you couldn’t just sit around,” Springsteen said of his time on the campaign trail, according to the AFP. “I never campaigned for politicians previous to John Kerry and at that moment it was such a blatant disaster occurring at the top of government, you felt that if you had any cachet whatsoever, you had to cash it in because you couldn’t sit around and watch it.
“I prefer to stay on the sidelines. I genuinely believe an artist [is] supposed to be the canary in the coal mine, and you’re better off with a certain distance from the seat of power.”
Springsteen said he still supports Obama but expressed disappointment in his handling of the job market and home foreclosures and disapproved of the attention Obama paid to corporations rather than the middle class.
“I would like to have seen more activism in job creation sooner than it came. I would like to have seen people helped out, seen some of these [home] foreclosures stopped somehow,” Springsteen said.
Springsteen said Obama was “more friendly to corporations than I thought he would be, [and] there’s not as many middle-class or working-class voices heard in the administration as I thought there would be.”
But Springsteen did send a little praise Obama’s way, saying, “He kept GM alive, which was incredibly important to Detroit and Michigan, and he got the health care law passed, although I wish there had been a public option and didn’t leave the citizens victims of the insurance companies. He killed Osama bin Laden, which was extremely important. He brought some sanity to the top level of government.”
Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own,” from his new album, “Wrecking Ball,” which debuts next month, appears on the official Obama playlist for campaign rallies and events this election.
Best Commencement Speeches of 2012 
Joe Biden Recalls Death of Wife, Daughter
Of course this is going to happen. He is Union and same for the actors. These people do not know waht a gallon of mik costs or gas. They including Obama are Minllionaires. If you union and do not back Obama your black balled as they sy
Posted by: Jim Rod | February 17, 2012, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
You are 100% correct Jim Rod!! And any entertainer who openly supports OBAMA gets black-balled by me by way of boycotting their product.
Posted by: HaddaKnuff | February 17, 2012, 1:07 pm 1:07 pm
That proves Springsteen is a fool.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | February 17, 2012, 1:19 pm 1:19 pm
Really ABC, this is what your reporting on when gas is going up, up and oil refineries are being shut down by Obama’s EPA, food prices are sky rocketing, Media Matters is tax exempt but 100% for Obama, fast and furious, Egyt hostages, Obama down grading our nukes, healthcare is more costly, no jobs, no pipeline, Solyndra and 11 others going bankrupt when Obama gave them millions, the President has spent and spending over a trillion a year us into debt, no solutions to save social security, medicare, cut the debt, etc from this President, and on and on and you want to talk about Bruce Springsteen!
Posted by: Freedom | February 17, 2012, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm
Well Springstein spent about 4 years whining about Guantanamo Bay on stage instead of playing Born to Run… fortunately Obama closed that up right away. Right? Hello?
Posted by: Mark Buehner | February 17, 2012, 1:49 pm 1:49 pm
It should be the boss… it should be the *ss.
Posted by: Zman | February 17, 2012, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
Bruce who?
What a tool.
Posted by: don | February 17, 2012, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
“I genuinely believe an artist [is] supposed to be the canary in the coal mine…”
What a pathetic clown. I’ve always enjoyed Springsteen music, but no more than that of any other garage band.
And that canary crap… no more than the football player who compared pro-football to that of being in combat in the middle east.
My historic lack of interest in ‘The Boss’ is justified.
Posted by: Willys | February 17, 2012, 3:00 pm 3:00 pm
In other words, Springsteen is disappointed in Obama for doing exactly what everyone thought Obama would do.
Posted by: the wolf | February 17, 2012, 3:05 pm 3:05 pm
Springsteen is such a tool for not backing Obama, man. He was good when he backed Obama but now his music sucks.
Posted by: george | February 17, 2012, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm
“I prefer to stay on the sidelines. I genuinely believe an artist [is] supposed to be the canary in the coal mine, and you’re better off with a certain distance from the seat of power.”
——–
What a blatant idiot and hypocrite is Springsteen. “The Hoss” is so transparently duplicitous, he deserves to be laughed at for his idiocy. Little harder to government, than criticize, hey Bruce?
I never thought Springsteen particularly talented, so I’ll just say this. Springsteen is an idiot savant. Wonderfully talented in his music, and an absolute moron at everything else. I wonder if he realizes that like Oprah, half the country would as soon he disappear?
Should have stuff to your music, Hoss.
Posted by: Tex Taylor | February 17, 2012, 6:17 pm 6:17 pm
“The Bush years were so horrific that you couldn’t just sit around,” Springsteen [said]….”
Yeah, things were really “horrific” when Bush was Prez: gas was $1.80 a gallon, unemployment was 5%, and we had a President who, for all his real or imagined faults, actually took his oath of office seriously.
I oppose tax increases, but Springsteen’s brand of idiocy makes a good case for a 100% wealth tax on verifiably stupid, self-aggrandizing entertainers.
Posted by: MarkJ | February 17, 2012, 6:58 pm 6:58 pm
I’ve been a huge Bruce fan in TX since ‘Greetings from Asbury Park’, which, I’m afraid, really dates me. I’ve no problem with an artist being ideological – we’re all citizens and entitled to share our opinions. That doesn’t stop me from thinking that the typical leftist artist is a useful idiot (as Bruce is), but hey, to each their own.
I’m still a big fan – want to take my kids to his shows, want to relive my ‘Glory Days’ with my middle-aged friends. But I won’t – after 2004, I haven’t bought anything (from music to concert tix) from Bruce, and I never will again. When you become partisan, when you choose a side, when you play that game – you pay the price. Bruce is just beginning to reap the whirlwind – he may find it very costly.
Posted by: LoneStar78730 | February 17, 2012, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
Bruce has a right to say whatever he wants. That being said, I pay no attention whatsoever to anything he or his fabulously wealthy liberal friends say. So you grew up poor. Most of us did. However, most of us didn’t become fabulously wealthy in our twenties. You had to have been there, as they say, to have any kind of credence. As far as the Bush years, they seemed to have been very good to Mr. Springsteen.
Posted by: Erin | February 22, 2012, 10:15 am 10:15 am
The Bush years were the results of what Gov/Pres Bill (who expanded encouraged fannie mae freddie mac get people into homes they cant afford) produced Springsteen said The Bush years were so horrific that you couldn’t just sit around, So how many millions of records did Bruce sell then? must have been awful for Bruce getting that rich making money hand over fist..just awful.. I am sorry you had to go through that Bruce.
Posted by: Mark | April 28, 2012, 8:54 am 8:54 am