We try to appeal to all party affiliations on this blog. Have we blogged about Ted Nugent? No, not that I can remember. Will we? Probably not. Are the vast majority of our subjects presumed Democrats? Yes. But we assume our readership to represent all manner of parties: We can absolutely confirm that we have at least one libertarian regular reader.
However, one thing we've never managed to cover in the 3+ years that McCain has been actively campaigning for President is his daughter Meghan's blog, McCainBlogette.com. Some of you may have either heard about it or visited it yourself. Like many other kids in their mid-twenties, she likes fashion, movie stars of the day, and a wide variety of music. Her family also has 8 residences and makes a few hundred million dollars (that's per year). But otherwise, yes, you're regular, un-elite, twenty-something chick just jamming to her iPod and flying around the country campaigning with her dad.
Which brings us to the only question we have any real reason to ask: How's the music? The short answer is that it's not bad. Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, mid-period White Stripes, The Arcade Fire, The Walkmen, Neutral Milk, etc etc. This makes up the better part of a truly postmodern musical patchwork that includes a few choice Faith Hill cuts, Heart's "Barracuda", Miles Davis, Tupac, some bands I've never heard of, and Better than Ezra. In short, it's exactly what everyone means when you ask them "What kind of music do you like?" and they say "Oh, wow, I mean, I listen to everything." From a purely Rockist perspective it's decent: it covers the Rock Canon, makes passing references to influential rootsy genres, displays a moderate amount of diversity, and throws in some oddball cuts few people will have known. She even surprised me a few times -- would you have guessed McCain's daughter listened to Gang of Four? And how would the members of Gang of Four feel about her using their music to "unofficially" help her father's campaign?
So finding nothing to criticize here, I'm forced to turn to her actual writing for good fodder. Playlist #3 includes the note that Seu Jorge is a genius. That seems like an overstatement. Playlist #14 is entirely made up of country songs. I listen to plenty of country music, commercial, alternative, and otherwise. For example, I can confirm that Brad Paisley can be a clever songwriter, and Carrie Underwood can, in fact, really wail (her band's not half bad either). But the Toby Keith here is just Red State-pandering, and Tim McGraw's cover of Ryan Adam's "When the Stars Go Blue" is actually worse than the version done by the Corrs with Bono guesting.
There are moments of general cheesiness as well. She writes, "What does it feel like to win the Florida primary? It feels like the Doors' 'Break on Through'". Yes, I'm quite sure that's exactly what Jim Morrison had in mind. Also, according to her, she's been a fan of the Dead Milkmen ever since an ex-boyfriend told her they'd change her life. If the Dead Milkmen are the band that changes John McCain's daughter's life, imagine what her life must have been like BEFORE she listened to them.
Finally, on July 9, she actually posted all her gushing fan mail. Some of them -- "this blog alone with bring hundreds of thousands of Americans to the McCain banner" -- make for a good chuckle, but it got me thinking -- do you know of another blog that has ever posted a list of all the awesome things people say about it?
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