No contest.
No gimmicks.
No hype.
No fanfare.
No bad acting.
No cheesy song.

No cutesy video with the former President of the United States of America in a
sky-blue bowling shirt eating carrot sticks.

No Johnny Sack.

Perhaps not even the Campaign Song. Just a campaign song.

Last night, before a standing-room-only crowd of 2,000, the singer-songwriter Ben Harper
opened for Barack Obama at a late-evening fund-raiser at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

Just before he sang the last song of his short set intoducing Obama, Harper told the crowd that
Obama for America had just selected the song -- "Better Way" -- to use in the campaign.

The differences between Harper's song for Obama and Celine Dion's song for Hillary Clinton
speak volumes about substantive differences in the ways each campaign thinks about idealism
and leadership. (Does anyone seriously doubt that Clinton's campaign test-marketed Dion's
little love-ditty for maximum appeal to 35-to-55-year-old women in Middle America?)

Barack Obama doesn't want you to "see [his] love shining like a light."

He doesn't think that "you and [him] were meant to fly higher than
the clouds" and "sail across the sky."

He doesn't ask you to "come with [him]" and feel that the two of you
are "soaring...floating up so high 'cause you and [him] were meant to fly."

He doesn't see you "sailing like a bird high on the wings of love," nor does
he want to "take [you] higher than all the stars above" until you're "burning,
yearning" and "gently turning round and round."

No flying.
No sailing.
No soaring.
No floating.
No clouds.

No burning.
No yearning.

Definitely no wings of love.

Barack Obama's got his feet on the ground.

You can watch the video of Ben Harper's "Better Way" here.

Update [2007-6-25 10:38:10 by horizonr]: Here, for your amusement,
is the original Air Canada TV commercial featuring Clinton's campaign
song. Hillary-ous.

Better Way
I'm a living sunset
Lightning in my bones
Push me to the edge
But my will is stone

'Cause I believe in a better way

Fools will be fools
And wise will be wise
But I will look this world
Straight in the eyes

I believe in a better way
I believe in a better way

What good is a man
Who won't take a stand
What good is a cynic
With no better plan

I believe in a better way
I believe in a better way

Reality is sharp
It cuts at me like a knife
Everyone I know
Is in the fight of their life

And I believe in a better way

Take your face out of your hands
And clear your eyes
You have a right to your dream
And don't be denied

I believe in a better way
I believe in a better way
I believe in a better way