I couldn’t help noticing that John McCain came onto the stage during a recent victory rally to the theme song from Rocky. In part, he was probably giving a nod to Sylvester Stallone who just endorsed the Republican frontrunner, but I couldn’t help also thinking his campaign was sticking it in the eye of John Cougar Mellencamp. The rocker requested that the McCain campaign stop playing his songs during their rallies. Mellencamp, until recently, was actively supporting the John Edwards campaign. Presumably, he’ll now chose either Clinton or Obama. On the other hand, Stallone said of McCain, “I like [him] a lot…there’s something about matching the character with the script. And right now, the script that’s being written and reality is pretty brutal…and you need somebody who’s been in that to deal with it.” Both Mellencamp and Stallone, through their art, offer their views of America. The question is whose vision would you rather have associated with your campaign?

Mellencamp had some of his biggest hits in the 80’s including one of the songs being played at McCain campaign rallies--Pink Houses (the other was Our Country released, 2006). The singer used his music in that day to express his views about America, including his opinion of then President Ronald Reagan. Mellencamp wrote the song Country Gentlemen, released the year Reagan left office, as kind of a goodbye singing telegram--one last chance to rail against him. It went, “Country gentleman walked a crooked mile, Got our money in his pocket. Did it all with a very handsome smile…he wants us to believe that he’s kind and honest with the best of intentions.” The chorus tells us that Reagan won’t help the poor, women, or children only his rich friends. The song continues, “Country gentlemen, we see him on TV. Glad handin’ folks and chattin’ to the nation…Just word upon slogan with emotional connection. Country gentlemen, now there’s a bird that flew High above his nation, prayed on its weakness. Picked our bones and threw it in his stew. Thank God he went back to California.” A cheerful little ditty. It isn’t grounded in reality, unfortunately. Reagan’s policies far from taking people’s money from their pockets or picking their bones did just the opposite. He implemented historic, across-the-board tax cuts including taking the top tax bracket down from a ludicrous 70% to 28%, and middle and lower wage earners to 15%: this had the effect of stimulating the economy providing unprecedented growth during the 80's and into the 90's. Further, he increased the standard deduction and the earned income credit to the point that four million joined the ranks of the lower income households who no longer owed any taxes to the federal government at all. (Then as now, those whose total incomes fall in the lower 50% only pay 5% of the total personal income tax revenue taken in each year.) The policies Reagan supported caused inflation to drop from just over 10% per year when he took office to under 5% when he left, which helped everyone’s buying power, and especially the lower incomes (who often don’t have investment income that can stay ahead of inflation). Unemployment fell to all time lows by the time Reagan left office, and the poverty rate dropped during his terms too. Reagan believed the best way to help people was to get government off their backs, create a strong economy and allow people to strive towards their dreams. He wasn’t flying above the country praying (I think Mellencamp meant preying) on people’s weaknesses, he wanted everyone to be able to fly. So much for art effectively imitating life in the case of John Mellencamp's song and Ronald Reagan’s America.

As for those songs the singer's asked the McCain campaign to stop playing, Pink Houses isn’t a vitriolic rant like Country Gentlmen, but is a downer, seeing America as a land of unfulfilled dreams and promises. The first verse is about a black man, who has a highway running through his front yard, and is deluded into thinking “he’s got it good.” Next verse, a woman having to cook and clean and slave away for an ungrateful husband. Next, a dissatisfied young man, who’s been told he was gonna be President…“but just like everything else those old dreams came and went” and the sarcastic refrain“but ain’t that America home of the free, Little pink houses for you and me.” Our Country is less gloomy, though it is basically a critique of the poverty and bigotry that still exists, including a shot at those narrow-minded people of faith: “There’s room enough here for science to live, And there’s room enough for religion to forgive and try to understand all the people of this land...And the ones that run this land, help the poor and common man...Some day it will come...This is Our Country” Are these things currently not happening within our borders? McCain’s well to be rid of both of these the glass isn't even half-full songs.

So how about Stallone and his Rocky? Well instead of America being a land of false hopes and dreams that never come true, it’s “Gonna fly now!” Your dreams can come true if you’re just brave enough and take a shot, and even if you fall short (“trying hard now” as the song goes), at least you’ll have the pride of knowing that you’ve given it your all. That’s an American value through and through: from the immigrant who arrives on our shores to those already here striving to better their lot in life or achieve some great goal. In Rocky I, the underdog goes the distance; Rocky II, he beats the champ; III, beats his fears and wins back his title; IV, he stands in as America’s champion against the Soviets; V, no one’s quite sure what that one was about, including Stallone. The final movie in the installment Rocky Balboa, which came out at the end of 2006, says, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” The old warhorse--who’s still remarkably strong for his age with a fire in his belly--stands toe-to-toe with the young, largely untested stallion. That’s a good theme for McCain, since his age has been raised as an issue and his likely opponent is shaping up to be Obama. The freshman Illinois senator is currently polling ahead of McCain by a few points, so the veteran contestant, like Rocky, is the underdog. Obama has already latched on to the boxing metaphor saying at a recent rally that he’s “looking forward to mixing it up with John McCain.” McCain responded in kind, stealing his would-be opponent’s tag line spoken at every rally, “I’m fired up and I’m ready to go.”

Rocky’s “go the distance…it ain’t over ‘til it’s over mentality” is a far better fit for John McCain than Mellencamp’s melancholy, everything-that’s-wrong-with America strains. The senator has demonstrated those Rocky qualities at key moments in his life including most recently when his campaign for the Presidency looked all but over last summer. He’s shown that he does still have fight in him. When a television interviewer told him that Stallone had endorsed him, McCain raised his arms, cheered and said, “I’m going to Philadelphia to run up the steps!” Mellencamp gave the McCain campaign a gift when he told them to stop playing his music. Rocky KO’s that stuff every day of the week.

Randall DeSoto is the author of the new book We Hold These Truths about how leaders, throughout the history of the United States, have appealed to beliefs found in Declaration of Independence.