First iPod

No I am not saying the iPod was just released. The NYT reports President Bush spent an hour and a half on Saturday on an 18-mile mountain bike ride at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player loaded with country and popular rock tunes aimed at getting the presidential heart rate up to a chest-pounding 170 beats per minute.

Which brings up the inevitable question. What, exactly, is on the First iPod? First, Mr. Bush's iPod is heavy on traditional country singers like George Jones, Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney. He has selections by Van Morrison, whose "Brown Eyed Girl" is a Bush favorite, and by John Fogerty, most predictably "Centerfield," which was played at Texas Rangers games when Mr. Bush was an owner and is still played at ballparks all over America. ("Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today.")

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign. Among them are "Circle Back" by John Hiatt, "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care" by Joni Mitchell and "My Sharona," the 1979 song by the Knack that Joe Levy, a deputy managing editor at Rolling Stone in charge of music coverage, cheerfully branded "suggestive if not outright filthy" in an interview last week.

At least he does not listen to the Dixie Chicks

Mr. Bush has had his Apple iPod since July, when he received it from his twin daughters as a birthday gift. He has some 250 songs on it, a paltry number compared to the 10,000 selections it can hold. Mr. Bush, as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal aide, Blake Gottesman, who buys individual songs and albums, including Mr. Jones's and Mr. Jackson's greatest hits, from the iTunes music store.

As for an analysis of Mr. Bush's playlist, Mr. Levy of Rolling Stone started out with this: "One thing that's interesting is that the president likes artists who don't like him." Mr. Levy was referring to Mr. Fogerty, who was part of the anti-Bush "Vote for Change" concert tour across the United States last fall.... Meanwhile, Mr. Levy sized up the rest of the playlist of the 58-year-old president. "What we're talking about is a lot of great artists from the 60's and 70's and more modern artists who sound like great artists from the 60's and 70's," he said. "This is basically boomer rock 'n' roll and more recent music out of Nashville made for boomers. It's safe, it's reliable, it's loving. What I mean to say is, it's feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's not."

Mr. Jones, Mr. Levy said, was nonetheless an interesting choice. "George Jones is the greatest living singer in country music and a recovering alcoholic who often sings about heartbreak and drinking," he said. "It tells you that the president knows a thing or two about country music and is serious about his love of country music."

Betsy Newmark commented I haven't heard that Van Morrison doesn't like the President though I have heard that Van is one of his and Mrs. Bush's favorite rock singers. Good taste. And who cares if Morrison doesn't like him. Van Morrison is my favorite singer, bar none, and if I had an IPod, it would be full of his songs. But he is a known misanthrope. So what if he doesn't like Bush? He doesn't like many other people. And the Rolling Stone guy seems to knock Bush for listening to songs from the 60s and 70s. Hey, a lot of baby boomers prefer to listen to songs from the golden era of rock 'n roll. Most of what comes out now is garbage. I would hazard a guess that most men in their late 50s prefer the songs of their youth than what is played today

Lorie Byrd commented Much is made of the fact that the President enjoys music performed by people who don’t like Bush’s politics, such as Van Morrison and John Fogerty. It has long been public knowledge that Van Morrison was one of the President and First Lady’s favorite artists. I wonder if it is equally newsworthy to analyze the Republican or right-leaning performers that liberals like? I am sure that even the most left-leaning politician has enjoyed the work of Bob Hope, Fred Thompson, John Wayne, Tom Selleck, Dennis Miller, Sara Evans, Angie Harmon, Kelsey Grammar, Ted Nugent, Charlton Heston, Patricia Heaton, Jimmy Stewart, or Arnold the Terminator.

Jesse Taylor commented George W. Bush has a guy who fills his iPod, courtesy of the always useless Elizabeth Bumiller. This isn't to kvetch about Bush being an elitist, but instead to just shake my head at the idea that he's gotten into office over two straight guys he demonized as elitist. He has a guy to put songs on his plug and play MP3 player. A guy. He's the leader of the free world. I'm glad he doesn't worry about making the perfect mix. But that's not normal, and he's not a normal person.

Are you complaining that it is a guy and not a girl, or that he does not do it himself. I am glad that he does not waste his time downloading songs (after all as you said he is the leader of the free world), and I am happy that they guy filling the iPod is paying for the downloads, and not running an illegal file sharing application that might expose important secret files on his computer. And I really don't care about the sex of the aide doing the downloading.

Ann Althouse commented If Bush only has 250 songs in his iPod, he should get an iPod Shuffle. But maybe he wouldn't care about the fact that there's a much smaller iPod that weighs nothing, since he's focused on exerting himself to the point of burning 1300 calories at a time. The article quotes the observation that "it's interesting" that the President likes the music of artists who don't like him, but actually it's not interesting. It would be interesting if he paid any attention to what old rock stars thought about politics.