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Obama Beats Clinton at Grammys

Obama Beats Clinton at Grammys U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (R) poses with his Grammy awarded to him by Grammy President Neil Portnow during a 'Grammys on the Hill' event on Capitol Hill in Washington September 6, 2006.  REUTERS/Molly Riley  (UNITED STATES) Barack Obama won his second Grammy, beating out Bill Clinton and taking the lead over Hillary Clinton in the total lifetime Grammys without having a hit song category.

Fresh from their feud on the campaign trail, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama beat Bill Clinton in a contest almost as closely watched as the primaries being waged across the United States — the music industry’s Grammy Awards.

Obama on Sunday won the spoken word Grammy for the audiobook version of his blockbuster tome “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.” It marked his second statuette, following a win in 2006 for “Dreams From My Father,” an audiobook for a memoir first published in 1995.

[...]

Bill Clinton was seeking his third Grammy with “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World,” a call to public service. Another former Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, also was in the running, with “Sunday Morning in Plains: Bringing Peace to a Changing World,” a collection of Bible lessons. Carter won the award last year.

[...]

Not to be outdone by Obama, Hillary Clinton won the spoken word prize in 1997, while she was still first lady, for her book “It Takes a Village.”

No Republican politician has won the category since Everett Dirksen, an Illinois congressman and senator, in 1968.

Why on earth there’s a Grammy award for reading autobiographies into a tape recorder is unclear. Whether there’s a political agenda at work in the selection committee, however, is decidedly not.

Photo from 2006 Grammy Awards (Obama did not accept in person last night) by Molly Riley/Reuters via Townhall via Google.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.

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Comments
 

Why on earth there’s a Grammy award for reading autobiographies into a tape recorder is unclear.

Once you let rap in it is hard to argue anything else doesn't qualify...

Posted by Tlaloc | February 11, 2008 | 11:29 am | Permalink
 

Personally, I think he should have won for his theme song chant of Bob the builder's "Yes we can".

Posted by yetanotherjohn | February 11, 2008 | 11:41 am | Permalink
 

Whether there’s a political agenda at work in the selection committee, however, is decidedly not.

What are the conservative audio books you feel were unfairly snubbed?

Posted by Grewgills | February 11, 2008 | 12:03 pm | Permalink
 

What are the conservative audio books you feel were unfairly snubbed?

It's more a matter of the silliness of the category. But, surely, conservatives can read books aloud just as well as liberals. Certainly, there have been plenty of conservative bestsellers. Even non-ranting ones, such as several Newt Gingrich books.

And, really, at least five nominations between just Bill and Hillary Clinton?

Posted by James Joyner | February 11, 2008 | 12:09 pm | Permalink
 

But, surely, conservatives can read books aloud just as well as liberals.

Too... Easy...
Must. Resist. Temptation.

Posted by Tlaloc | February 11, 2008 | 12:45 pm | Permalink
 

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