Hip Hopping Kerry

Mark Steyn writes about John Kerry's newly found love of rap music and asks a question I've always wondered about: How come no one asks the good follow up questions when they know a politician is lying? Asked about pop culture, Kerry said 'Oh sure. I follow and I'm interested. I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important . . . I'm still listening because I know that it's a reflection of the street and it's a reflection of life.' Why didn't the MTV interviewer ask him his favorite rapper or song? What would Kerry have come up with? 'The Ten Crack Commandments' by Biggie Smalls? 'I Get Around' by Tupac? 'High All The Time' by 50 Cent? Personally, I like rap music. It's fun to dance around the apartment to when I get ready to go out. But you just know that Kerry has no idea what he's talking about and that he and Theresa aren't rocking out to Obie Trice before heading out to meet with those foreign leaders. Kerry did give one rap reference saying that 'I think when you start talking about killing cops or something like that, it bothers me'. Kerry is referring to the 1992 song by Ice-T. Is Kerry that with it that the only rap song he could name is one that swirled controversy 12 years old?

Steyn continues:

This isn't entirely a matter of trivialities. The fads and fashions of the world aren't confined to the Billboard Hot 100. All over the planet, men in late middle age are pretending to like stuff just 'cause it's what the likes of Maureen Dowd tell them people want to hear. John Kerry pretends to like gangsta rap. Russia pretends it supports the Kyoto Accord. The European Union pretends Yasser Arafat is committed to peace with Israel. The Security Council pretends its resolutions mean something. Kofi Annan pretends the Oil-for-Fraud program is a humanitarian aid effort for the Iraqi people. The International Atomic Energy Authority pretends the mullahs in Tehran are good-faith negotiators on the matter of Iranian nukes.

It's easy to pander to fashion -- whether on pop music, the environment, the Middle East ''peace process'' or sentimental transnationalism. But on MTV, Kerry wasn't done yet. After coming out for hip-hop, he managed to blame the Bush administration's ''behavior'' for making terrorists become terrorists. I guess that terrorism's just a ''reflection of the street,'' too. Doubtless there's ''a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it.'' The MTV crowd loved the line, and no doubt Jacques Chirac and the Arab League will as well. Welcome to John Kerry's hip-hop foreign policy: Ask the multilateral gang what's hip, and hop to it.