Springsteen Joins President Obama on Final Campaign Leg
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(MADISON, Wis.) — Bruce Springsteen is joining President Obama at his last three rallies, in the three states that comprise his “Midwest Firewall” — Wisconsin, Ohio, and Iowa — states that the Obama campaign sees as his best path to the 270 electoral votes he needs for reelection.
Monday morning in Madison, Wis., before an estimated crowd of approximately 18,000, Springsteen sang a campaign song he introduced a few weeks ago, asking the crowd to shout the campaign’s anthem — “Forward!” — after each line.
“Kissed her sister then I kissed her momma,” he sang, after which the crowd yelled “Forward!” “Usually this time of day I’m in my pajamas/Let’s vote for the man who got Osama/Forward and away we go.”
“But I got stuck right there,” Springsteen joked. “Because how many things rhyme with Obama?”
He resumed singing: “So I came to Wisconsin looking for a date/We kissed and I said it’s a hell of a state/We made love but it wasn’t so great. Forward and away we go…”
Springsteen offered an aside: “I know, that verse wasn’t very political. Didn’t have anything to do with Obama either. That’s alright. I was saving the best for the third verse… I was trying to figure out what I’d write about and I thought well maybe third verse I could write about the debates. Yeah.”
“The first debate, I wait,” Springsteen sang.
“Actually,” he admitted in another aside, “the first debate really freaked me out! Alright?”
The crowd laughed.
He resumed singing: “But then Romney got schooled twice by Obama/Then smiling Joe Biden brought the drama/Fox News said he was smoking Marijuana. Forward and away we go!”
These rallies in Madison, Columbus, and Des Moines are aimed at the undecided voters in each of these pivotal states.
Springsteen is traveling with the president on Air Force One to Ohio, where they will be joined by Jay-Z at a rally in Columbus. Then it’s off to Des Moines, Iowa, where the president and the first lady will speak at his final event of the campaign in the state that launched him nationally.
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