Obama's Grammy
Posted 47 weeks 2 days ago byIt may have been a shock -- and a welcome one -- to see a jazz artist like Herbie Hancock win record of the year at last night's Grammys.
The least surprising development of the night was seeing Barack Obama get the "Spoken Word" Grammy for reading his "Audacity of Hope" autobiography into a microphone. For the Grammy voters, apparently, political books are shoo-ins -- as long as they are produced by Democrats or left-leaning political icons.
Here is the list of the last six "spoken word" Grammy winners:
2008: Obama (he beat out Jimmy Carter, Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton and Alan Alda)
2007: Jimmy Carter (he beat out Bill Maher and Al Franken, and shared the award with lefty icons Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee)
2006: Obama (for his first autobiography)
2005: Bill Clinton for his long-winded memoir "My Life."
2004: Al Franken for "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
2003: Maya Angelou, "A Song Flung Up to Heaven"
Oh, yeah. And in 1997, Hillary won for her reading of "It Takes a Village." No word on how far Mark Steyn's "America Alone" got in this year's nominating chase, or why "The Looming Tower" was shut out.
Thoughts
Obama's Grammy
Submitted on February 12th, 2008 by BenI wonder if that award qualifies as an in-kind contribution under federal election campaign finance laws? John McCain, call your office!
I was a little surprised that Herbie Hancock won album of the year. I wonder if this Grammy might have been another one of those "lifetime achievement" awards disguised as an honor for an certain album? "River" was OK, I guess, but I'm not really a Joni Mitchell fan. Maybe the Grammy voters didn't want to reward Amy Winehouse's bad behavior?
Oh, and Javier Navarrete got robbed. His score for "Pan's Labyrinth" was far and away the best of the year.
Hmm. I seem to have drifted off topic...