"How do you like me now?"
Well I'll be danged...have pigs flown? Hath hell frozen over?
"Toby Keith Throws Support Behind Obama"
This oughta put a twist in the knickers of the mullett-headed Nascar set.
"LOS ANGELES -- Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama is getting a little bit of support from one of the big names in country music.
....Keith is best known among non-country music folks for his post-Sept. 11 song, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."
The song features lines aimed at the Taliban in Afghanistan like, "We lit up your world like the Fourth of July."
But Keith has said the song was more of a patriotic tune than a pro-war song.
The county music star said that he was impressed that Obama visited Afghanistan to learn about the region. [..]" Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.
This is BIG. This is an important thing to Obama's campaign.
Country music has pretty much supported Republicans since the Vietnam war, and Toby Keith is seen by the beer-swilling rednecks as one of them, and he is. He's also one of country music's most popular acts, and has a lot of clout in the music community.
And there are waaay more of those Joe-six-pack guys than there are latte-swilling intellectuals. This vote segment will be important to the election.
Unless the rednecks pull a Dixie-Chicks backlash on Toby.
It wouldn't surprise me if the righties throw him under the bus. After all he's done too...countless USO trips, fundraisers for wounded vets, etc.
It's time more C&W artists spoke up. Toby can stand up there with Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Country music has some reasonable minds, but there are plenty who've been afraid to speak up...remembering the crap the Dixie Chicks went through.
His Obama endorsement just may redeem Toby in my eyes for his part in trashing the Dixie Chicks.
He's said to be a lifelong Democrat, but he sure didn't act it, donating money to both Bush and the RNC:
So, you can imagine how much the Republicans have screwed up to have him do a complete turnabout.
BUT--there's another way to look at this. See, Toby has a movie coming out - "Beer For My Horses" - and he's a savvy Okie businessman. His country market has probably been tapped out and he sniffs change blowing in the wind. Might as well get in good with the arugula-eating crowd early.
That ol' Toby is one crafty cowboy. He could be playing the blue against the red, or maybe he's just out for the green.
