It's All About The Ears

JACKSONVILLE -- As every professional wrestler knows, your entrance music is your destiny, putting the fans in the right frame of mind to receive your character.

Not surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats disagree about setting the mood.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton play many of the same songs: Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" (also a favorite of John Edwards's), U2's "Beautiful Day," and Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising." Obama has been to enter and exit to R and B standards, while Clinton, for a time, bounded on stage to the tunes of Celine Dion. (MSNBC has a great round-up here.)

John McCain -- As I type, the speakers are whispering an instrumental version of "God Bless America". To warm up the crowd, his advance team mixes John Phillip Sousa marches (although not The Stars and Stripes Forever ...) with John Williams fanfares. Before Navy audiences, they play Steve Smith's Top Gun anthem and Kenny Loggins' Highway To The Danger Zone.

After campaign rallies, it's Chuck Berry's Johnny Be Goode. It's not clear whether McCain himself is happy with the choice of songs. "I wish they'd play Abba," he said.