Bruce Springsteen Sitting Out 2012 but Backs Obama
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Taylor Hill/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — 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 opined 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.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio