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Mellencamp for Senate?


Lucky

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An online effort to draft Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Indiana's Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh is building up steam.

Twitter is abuzz with the rumor and three separate Facebook groups have been set up, with the largest boasting about 2,000 members.

Mellencamp is no stranger to politics. In 2008, he recorded a radio commercial supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign and requested that Republican candidate John McCain stop playing his songs, including Our Country and Pink Houses, at his rallies.

Mellencamp's songs often have political or social themes. He is a co-founder of Farm Aid.

On Thursday, Mellencamp spokesman Bob Merlis said the musician "has no statement to offer."

Source: USA TODAY

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He'd have my vote. ;)

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He only has to win Indiana ... it's the senate seat. I'm originally from Indiana (actually just down the road from his hometown), and I still have family there. Honestly, he just might be able to do it. He gets a lot of respect for his FarmAid involvement. Farming is what Indiana is built on, and their biggest moneymaker. At least it used to be ... :P

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Really? Where do you get that from? Everything I've ever seen or read focuses on him being a pretty stand up guy. And he's still involved in FarmAid, which continues to this day. He's been very political for a long time, and is very well liked in Southern Indiana.

I met him after a concert at a meet & greet. We talked about the tornado that took out half of my hometown, and he gave the impression of being a regular guy. One that I liked. If I still lived there, I think he might have my vote.

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I think it is a very good call - or else that seat will definitely go to the Republicans . It may look like a silly last minute choice ( which it kind of is ) , but he really couldn't do much worse than Bayh - who did nothing of note - except quit like a little whiner , and not name names of who he really thought was stonewalling in congress ( the least he could do if he really wants to be seen as a public servant - it's not Skull and Bones , after all ) . However , any chance at the big money as a lobbyist may go out the window , then ... :P

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I went to the first Farm Aid...with a friend who claimed she knew John Mellencamp...I think it was in Illinois? Anyway, we got pretty close to the stage and he sees her...say's "Hey Donna" and some security guys let us backstage...Anyway, He seemed like a decent person...and this was around when he was doing "Scarecrow"...he really was into it...worried about family farms...gave me an autograph and pic...I got to see Willie Nelson, Lou Reed, Charlie Daniels...just walking around...

(not meet them though) I have to say I can't see John Mellencamp running for anything... politically anyway...He might maybe think about it but he's a decent person and politics isn't... :couch:

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Mellencamp has changed since his FarmAid ways of the 80's. Now he's more about... "I bought your stinkin' farm and gave it to my super model girlfriend"

NOT even close. She's his wife, not his girlfriend. Secondly, he lives in his home town, not some lavish rock star estate with a mansion. I'm sick of people discounting the mid west. If you've never lived there you just don't get the mentality. We're not all NASCAR loving idiots. We are descent people who want to live good lives. We don't need to be catered to or patronized.

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I'm from the Midwest as well, except unlike rural Southern Indiana, it's Chicago, Illinois. It's a great place and they're not all hicks. Granted when you leave the large urban areas like Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Cleveland you're getting kind of dicey, there's still some good spots to be found.

That being said, and I blame Jesse Ventura and Al Franken for this, what makes him think just because he's famous and well-known in the music industry, he's Senate material? Spare me the bashing of the people already in the Senate and whether or not you think they belong there, but 99% of them are career politicians. They went to law school, or had some other kind of higher education and pursued a life of public service as what they did for a living. That's what they are. Love 'em or leave 'em, that's what they are. He's a musician. Why should I take his opinions about politics seriously enough to consider voting for him, if for example I lived in Indiana?

It's mind-boggling to me how these celebrities think their political opinions are important enough to warrant our attention. They can speak their minds all the want, but we don't have to listen.

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I'm sick of people discounting the mid west. If you've never lived there you just don't get the mentality.

I was born and raised in Iowa and lived in Missouri. I know all about milkin' cows and detasseling corn. I was just saying that he went through some changes and that quote about him giving the farm to his model wife, wasn't mine it was David Spades on SNL. I might even be able to find the Hollywood Minute clip on YouTube.

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PS, if you'd read the post, Mellencamp hasn't said a word about throwing his hat into the ring. There is however a grassroots movement to make it so. And absolutely no one is saying you should listen to his opinions, least of all Mellencamp himslef. However if you were a like-minded democrat (as I am), you might see that his opinions very often coinicide with a lot of other people's, including my own in many cases. At least as much or more than these career politicians. What have they done? For Indiana, or the rest of us? Maybe it's time try another way.

Not that it matters, but I was born in Indianopolis, and spent the first 7 years of my life in Petersburg Indiana, where my family is still. Like I said, right down the road from Bloomington, Vincennes, and Seymour, all places that Mellencamp still frequents because the man lives there. He knows what has happened to Indiana. And while it isn't entirely about cows and corn, Indiana is a rural state, and it was built on good solid country communities. The people farmed, raised, corn, soy beans, milo, and raised hogs, cattle and horses. That is my background. Even if they aren't in farming though they are middle America regular folks. Their culture, livlihoods and way of life are being destroyed in todays world and Mellencamp gets it. He understands being a middle-America regular guy and that's why I'd vote for him, not because he's any sort of celebrity.

Sorry, bit of a soapbox, but like ryansgirl I think the Midwest get a bum rap sometimes. :P

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Good lord woman, we could be kin and not even know it. My mom's side is from Princeton, and live in Patoka, Francisco, and Owensville. I grew up in Lebanon and went to college in Evansville. ;)

And you are 100% correct. I haven't heard Mellencamp himself say this is what he wants to do. And just because he lives in the heartland doesn't make him a bona fide politician. He's admitedly a hot head so I don't see him putting up with politics much.

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