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.

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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.

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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.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Tlaloc says:

    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…

  2. yetanotherjohn says:

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

  3. Grewgills says:

    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?

  4. James Joyner says:

    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?

  5. Tlaloc says:

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

    Too… Easy…
    Must. Resist. Temptation.