In addition to his gratitude, then, the president may also have some lessons to learn from his most prominent celebrity endorser, lessons that could help him craft a governing sensibility that might appeal to both sides of an incontrovertibly divided nation. He is also a striking example of the gap that has opened up between star performers of all kinds and the democratic expectation of equality, and he offers at least one way that two strong but seemingly opposing drives in contemporary American life might be harmonized. His prominence in Obama's campaign may be important not simply because the rapper maintained the president's credibility with urban black youth and white suburban youth alike. Yet looking forward, it seems clear that while Springsteen's America of shuttered steel mills and long drives down darkened turnpikes may continue to have an emotional hold over Democratic and Republican officeholders and voters alike, Jay-Z embodies the challenge of our political future-which must speak to an electorate that keenly feels increasing disparities of wealth but still dreams big. The fact that everyone is born with, in Jay-Z's words, "genius-level talent" is a spur to effort, not an excuse for being lazy. The rapper's tireless support for Obama became a constant topic of conversation on hip-hop-centric urban morning shows and likely went some way towards inoculating the president against the charge that he was a sell-out.
Jay-Z, meanwhile, helped to shore up the president's base, which appeared to be notably less enthusiastic than in 2008.
And the fact that New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie is a huge Springsteen fan may not have been solely responsible for the bipartisan photo ops that allowed Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy to seem caring and presidential and above politics, but it didn't hurt. In the closing days of the campaign, Springsteen's appearances with the president helped neutralize the image of Obama as an uncaring and out-of-touch elitist among blue-collar white voters in battleground states. He also owes his election, in part, to Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z-two brilliant and socially responsible American musicians, each of whom lent their hard-earned auras of authenticity to his campaign. Barack Obama owes his re-election to smart political strategists, a dedicated staff, bad weather, an unpalatable opponent, rich people who gave him more than a billion dollars, and, above all, to more than 50 million Americans who may have been hurting but voted on Tuesday.