As the December 15 edition of TNR was going to press, we realized that an unusual number of our articles made reference to, and bore echoes of, popular music. We decided, in fact, to put together the following musical addendum to the current issue.
Our cover story, by senior editor Alec MacGillis, provides an in-depth look at Mitt Romney’s surprisingly volatile temper. One of the incidents described by MacGillis involved a confrontation between Romney and Sky Blu, a member of the party-rock duo LMFAO, aboard an Air Canada jet in February 2010. The incident inspired a song, “We Came Here to Party”, which directly addresses the former Governor in hopes of clearing the air. A sampling of the lyrics:
We both get a lot of attention in the press
You sellin’ books and wanna be the president
We sellin’ hooks and the flow is heaven sent
We both hustlin’, so why we tusslin’?
Another article, by Amanda Erickson, looks at the Azeri pop act Ell & Nikki, and how their surprising victory at the Eurovision Song Contest has been a public relations coup for their native Azerbaijan. Here’s the music video for their winning number, “Running Scared”:
The issue also features a piece by special correspondent Walter Shapiro, which looks at the fundraising prowess of former George W. Bush advisor Karl Rove. Of course, before he was the driving force behind the Crossroads GPS SuperPAC, Rove enjoyed a short-lived career as a rapper and dancer: