Boss: 'US Revealed True Heart Election Night'

Singer praises Obama, lashes out at Bush in interview

By Amelia Atlas, Newser User

Posted Jan 18, 2009 6:13 AM CST

(Newser) – America has finally shown "its real face" with the election of Barack Obama, and "an exhilaration I've never seen" after a campaign victory, Bruce Springsteen told the Guardian. The singer, who has never worn his politics lightly, ardently campaigned for Obama. "Obama's a unique figure in history," Springsteen said. "His election was an incredible moment for someone who seemed to carry enormous parts of American history with him. Enormous and painful parts."

Springsteen was equally vocal about the destructive legacy of the Bush administration. "We've lived through a nightmare in the past eight years here. Everything got broken," he grumbled. Now, however, he has reason for optimism. This hopeful "place we've been talking about, singing about, it's alive," he declared. "It isn't dead. It exists."

[Images (4)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (4)]

Bruce Springsteen plays his guitar, up for auction at last year's 2nd annual Stand Up For Heroes: A Benefit for the Bob Woodruff Foundation in New York. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, file)

Bruce Springsteen performs for supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Ohio last year. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Bruce Springsteen performs at an outdoor Obama rally in Cleveland last year. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

Barack Obama smiles at Bruce Springsteen at a campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio, last year. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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Bruce Springsteen introduces the Obama family at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, November 2, 2008, after performing "The Rising". (bloggerinterrupted)

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The deregulation, the idea of the unfettered, free market, the blind foreign policy. This was a very radical group of people who pushed things in a very radical direction, and we are suffering the consequences. - Bruce Springsteen on Bush administration

His election was an incredible moment for someone who seemed to carry, both seriously, and... not, not lightly but without great burden, enormous parts of American history with him. Enormous and painful parts.
- Bruce Springsteen on Obama

Now is the time to stand together with Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the millions of Americans that are hungry for a new day, roll up our sleeves and come on up for the rising. - Bruce Springsteen, in a November 2 speech

We're going through something that we haven't gone through in my life. Foreign policy, domestic policy - driven to its breaking point. Everything got broken. - Bruce Springsteen

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Boss: 'US Revealed True Heart Election Night'