If the SAT's analogies section tested politics and pop culture, even the dimmest teenager would agree that 'Hillary Clinton: Politics = Celine Dion: Music.' Both Clinton and Dion have enjoyed astounding career success. Both showed early talent but are now widely accused of being sellouts. Dion's interesting, edgy early songs were replaced, during her bid for superstardom, by trite and formulaic crowd pleasers; Clinton's interesting, edgy early policy positions were replaced, during her bid for elected office, by trite and formulaic crowd pleasers.
n any case, "You and I" is not exactly in its first run as a theme song. It has already been used by Air Canada. Not just "used": Air Canada commissioned the song, and the airline's advertising consultant wrote the lyrics. (Art at its purest, it ain't.) This isn't the first time a presidential campaign has relied on a song that's basically an advertising jingle, but I think it's the first time a campaign has relied on someone else's advertising jingle.
That the "someone else" is a foreign country's national airline doesn't help.
Some years back, Joe Biden's presidential candidacy was snuffed in its infancy when it was discovered that his campaign speech borrowed rather heavily (that is, plagiarized) from the political rhetoric of Britain's New Labor (was it early Tony Blair?). Then again, times have changed, and Canada is looking pretty good to some blue staters. (Maybe a realignment is in order: merge the blue states with Canada, and let loose the Old Confederacy. We can bury the loose nukes.)
"You and I" is suitable as elevator music... And its selection as campaign theme song may ultimately underscore what Clinton's critics have long charged: that her policy platform offers more pablum than principle, more formula than inspiration.
That may capture the larger problem. Hillary can sound (sadly, in substance--this is not intended primarily as gendered commentary on her vocal qualities) like nails on the blackboard of a stuck elevator, to coin an alarming sonic image. Could we really stand that for the years of a presidency?
Probably better than Bush. But there are other, better alternatives.
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