Making the connection

Some of you might not recognize the performer or the song in the video, so I should explain. That is Michael Nutter, the recently elected mayor of Philadelphia, performing the hip hop classic Rapper's Delight (He starts up 1 minute into the video.). You often see politicians using music as a way to connect with people (think Clinton playing the sax and Huckabee playing the bass). To be honest, I haven't really thought of someone using hip hop before, but it completely made sense for Nutter, who was trying to get the black vote. The fact that I found this surprising at all probably reflects that for some reason, I don't think hiphop has risen to the level of respect in popular culture that rock and roll and jazz has--that it is somehow unbecoming of a politician. I wonder why that is?

As a side note, I just don't see Obama or Clinton stepping up to the mike to win the black urban vote (all things considered, Nutter's performance is pretty impressive and I don't know that Obama or Clinton could even come close to competing). And John McCain--well he's probably not even shooting for that demographic, but that would get ugly really quickly.

Hat tip to acupofambition