Has he moved to Canada? Did he get upset seeing thousands of people waving American flags while he was on stage? No, he's moved on, the election is over and now he needs to make a living.
They are adults capable of exercising judgement and restraint, notice that everybody was fully clothed and Mellencamp didn't get to rant. They didn't give him a stage for his politics, just his music, which happens to still be rather popular. And they also know that regardless of a performers political outlook we learned earlier this month that half the country disagrees with them, and picking and chosing entertainment based on politics would accomplish nothing.
From your profile, I can see that you have an appreciation for music and performance much more than you do the underlying message sent by the performer's lyrics.
Mellencamp's lyrics are intentional to provoke anti-Bush feelings from the listeners and no justification from you can deny that, regardless of the 'Kerryesque' words you use.
I'd guess you probably 'appreciate' Eminmem for his artistry too!
PS - I just watched Destiny's Child's Halftime performance at the Bears - Cowboys game featuring The Old Guard of the US Army, and that was much better 'entertainment' for a football game than 'Hate America Mellencamp'.
See. That's exactly what Mellencamp did, and you completely missed my point, as you missed Mellencamp's. And all I did was pose the possibility of writing a Mellencamp-like b^itch-slap song about you and your family to show you how you would be offended then--and you already feel offended. Yet Mellencamp has already written such a song about all of us as a family of Americans (remember the theme here is "One America"). Then the NFL had him sing it in a hundred million homes to smack us around with his little liberal "you hypocritical Jesus freaks and your ex-alcoholic Jesus-freak President are morons" wake up call.
John Cougar Mellencamp is not the only person in this country with free speech rights.