On the way home tonight, I heard a radio bit that was comparing a list of John McCain's top 10 songs on his iPod to Barak Obama's top 10.

They diverged along the expected stereotypical lines of age and background -- Barak is a fan of Kanye's Touch the Sky, groovy jazz, some Bruce, and the Fugees, while McCain is more into As Time Goes By from Casablanca, not one but two ABBA songs,the Beach Boys, and a poorly named song for this aging candidate called Should We Make It Through December. They overlap only at Frank (where all universes seem to overlap). I'm fascinated by what's in anybody's iPod, but I wonder what this says about our candidates that's worth considering?

I'm trying to imagine if potential clients were to use my iPod as criterion for choosing me as their speech therapist. I have fewer singer-songwriter types and cool-bands-that-only-people-who-listen-to-a-given-radio-station-have-heard-of than my sister (I thought of you when I heard Poi Dog Pondering yesterday) but more than most of my friends, a smattering of show tunes, 80s pop and punk, more hip hop than I should freely admit to, a growing amount of ska and fusion-y G. Love kind of music, everything that Train and the Indigo Girls have put out, and a few How To Speak French podcasts that I haven't listened to yet. The only videos I have on there are favorite comedians, a little SNL, and a random Pirates of the Caribbean movie. One might assume that I'm a little, um, behind the times. Or a lesbian. Or a pot smoker. In my personal opinion, there is not a thing wrong with being any of those things, as I know perfectly good speech therapists who are some and/or all of them. I just don't know that my iPod speaks to my ability to lead a client through a cueing hierarchy or a swallowing study.

I'm sure each candidate thought carefully about what their song choices put forth about their personality -- they are sweet, inspirational, upbeat, and/or nostalgic. I'm sure no one would actually decide a vote based on these songs, but they do underscore the differences between them. Maybe people would actually re-consider their vote if one of them had listed something that really did speak to their potential leadership, such as:

You Dropped a Bomb on Me -- The Gap Band (a Rob A joke)
Superstitious -- Stevie Wonder
Can't Make Up My Mind -- John Gorka
Highway to Hell -- AC/DC
Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw -- Jimmy Buffett
Bombs over Baghdad -- Outkast
Tell Me Lies -- Fleetwood Mac
I Used to Love Her -- GNR
Oops I Did It Again -- Britney Spears
Buttons -- Pussycat Dolls
Armageddon It -- Def Leppard

Alas, they played it safe.

The image is from here.