I have no interest in ever bringing politics into these columns, but this bit o' news from earlier this week is too… noteworthy to ignore. It’s noteworthy in a way that transcends all partisan divisions and party alliances. If an American presidential candidate from the Democratic party, Reform party or Green party, et cetera ad nauseam, ever quoted the theme song to POKEMON 2000 repeatedly throughout his campaign, you better believe it would get commiserate attention.
As it happens, it’s Republican candidate Herman Cain who’s done the quoting, alternately ascribing the lyrics to “a poet” or to “the closing song of the 2000 Winter Olympics” because they’re presumably more acceptable sources of inspiration. Observers sniffed out the true source pretty early on and it’s perhaps doubly bizarre that he’d only admit to his POKEMON fandom (in a Huffington Post article) once accusations of sexual harassment forced him to suspend his presidential campaign.
The song in question is, indeed, Donna Summers' “The Power of One,” which did, indeed, serve as the theme to POKEMON 2000 and was never actually included in any programming related to the 2000 Winter Olympics.
Compare…
…and contrast.
Odds are, Cain probably heard this song while watching the movie with his kids sometime. If it struck him so profoundly, power to him, but I do find it terribly amusing that he’d feel inspired enough by it to quote its lyrics in a debate, yet embarrassed enough by to it to come up with more respectable-sounding sources.
ugh...research people. All he heard was the Donna Summer song and if he heard it out of context somewhere originally he'd have no way of knowing unless someone told him.