Springsteen Makes It Official: He\'s for Obama

Until now, Bruce Springsteen had chosen to stay silent on national politics, even though his latest album, “Wrecking Ball,” can seem like a soundtrack for the Obama campaign, with its lyrics about corporate raiders negatively impacting the working-class people he sings about.

It became clear in the last week that he was going to support President Obama again, after he announced he would perform at Obama rallies in Ohio and Iowa.
But on Thursday night he made it formal in a letter he made public on his Web site. The letter included an explanation as to why Mr. Obama's term had not gone precisely as promised, with a nod to the economy he inherited and Republican opposition.

The letter states: “This presidential election is different than the last one because President Obama has a four year record to run on. Last time around, he carried with him a tremendous amount of hope and expectations. Unfortunately, due to the economic chaos the previous administ ration left him with, and the extraordinary intensity of the opposition, it turned into a really rough ride. But through grit, determination, and focus, the President has been able to do a great many things that many of us deeply support.”

He credits Mr. Obama for “passing guaranteed health care for most of our citizens,” and “rescuing the auto industry and so many of the American jobs that go with it,” “protecting and enhancing the rights of women, and bringing us closer to full acceptance of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.”

He cites “the killing of Osama Bin Laden,'' and “following through on the removal of troops from the misguided and deceptive war in Iraq.”

He expresses anger at what he called “the opposition's resort to voter suppression,” through “anti-voter, anti-citizen efforts.”

And, he concludes: “Right now, there is a choice going on in America, and I'm happy that we live in a country where we all participate in that process. For me, President Obama is our best choice because he has a vision of the United States as a place where we are all in this together. We're still living through very hard times but justice, equality and real freedom are not always a tide rushing in. They are more often a slow march, inch by inch, day after long day. I believe President Obama feels these days in his bones and has the strength to live them with us and to lead us to a country ‘…where no one crowds you and no one goes it alone.' That's why I plan to be in Ohio and Iowa supporting the re-election of President Obama to lead our country for the next four years.”