Posted on 01/13/2006 1:55:27 PM PST by pittsburgh gop guy
Singer Tim McGraw Eyes Politics
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country singer Tim McGraw says he wants to run for office someday in his adopted home state of Tennessee — perhaps for governor or U.S. senator — and he's getting encouragement from a fellow Democrat, former President Clinton.
"I think he's got it," Clinton says of McGraw in an Esquire magazine story that hits newsstands Monday. "The Democrats need candidates whom people can relate to in a personal way, people who understand their lives and their concerns and share their values. And I think that's something Tim can do without even pretending."
McGraw, 38, told the magazine he has no immediate plans to enter politics.
"Maybe in 10 or 15 years when the music has died down," he said.
The magazine reported that McGraw, who has three young daughters with his wife, singer Faith Hill, was recruited a few years ago to run for the U.S. Senate seat that eventually went to Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander, but passed because of his children and his singing career.
While running for the Senate remains an option, the Louisiana native seems more interested in the governor's office.
"It's more of a leadership role, and I think that's something that I'd do well," he said. "That doesn't rule out senator; I just think that as governor of a state, especially where I live, there would be a lot more opportunities to make some decisions and change some things."
He identified health care as his top issue, and said one of his main reasons for wanting to enter politics is Clinton, whom he calls "the best president we ever had."
Born in Delhi, La., he grew up as Tim Smith. But at age 12, he learned his father was baseball pitcher Tug McGraw, who had had a brief affair with his mother.
His mom and stepfather divorced when he was in the fourth grade, leaving her to raise him and his two sisters.
"She worked two or three jobs at a time," McGraw told The Associated Press in 2004. "I can remember being 11, 12, 13 years old and getting up at 12 o'clock at night and my mom sitting at the kitchen table with the bills spread out everywhere and not even knowing I was there with her head down crying. And then the next day the VCR being gone. It's stuff you grow up with, but you learn a lot from that."
He went to Northeastern Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship and started singing and playing guitar. He dropped out in 1989 and moved to Nashville, where he landed a recording contract with Curb Records
McGraw has sold more than 30 million albums and compiled a long list of hits that includes "Indian Outlaw," "Where the Green Grass Grows," "Red Ragtop" and "Live Like You Were Dying." He's also branched into acting; he had a supporting role in 2004's "Friday Night Lights" and has a lead role in the upcoming film "Flicka," an update of a popular 1943 movie.
Oh I agree. I listen to Sarah Evans as she is openly Republican.
No Blixie Nixes. And no Tim McGraw.
10 or 15 years? Who does he think he is, George Strait?
One can hope. I can add what I am thinking about his future, but it would be very unkind of me to write it.
Faith Hill, McGraw's wife, is a supporter of Bush and is a Republican.
This is very disappointing.
I like Toby Keith better, anyway.
Thank you for the pings!
Until the current idol Kenny C., showed up, Tim was the King of the so-called 'hat acts', marginally talented country-pop singers who owed all of their luck, fame and fortune to their record company's promotion department, which more likely than not employed some form of payola, but in any case invested big moola in these carefully selected boys. Nothing organic or natural in that. And yes, the focus groups decided the stars must wear cowboy hats! McGraw, not his real name, ain't no Vince Gill, and he ain't no Randy Travis, that's fer shore!
Faith is the one who turned him on to the RATs...bet on it.
I don't know. Kennedy was better than Clinton. Heck, by today's standards Kennedy was a Republican.
(He dropped out in 1989 and moved to Nashville)
This is so typical of entertainers. They have on average way less education than the typical professional, and yet they think they know economic policy better than anyone else just because they are rich.
It's too bad. The guy is very likable and I think he is one of the luckiest men on the face of the earth (for obvious reasons).
LOL!
He sings overwrought pop music with a twang. He hit the music lottery. He's not smart enough to realize lightning won't strike twice in his direction.
And Bill Clinton watched black churches burn when he was a kid.
I don't want to sound mean, but doesn't this have all the makings of a country song?
It really is difficult for me to believe how sorry many people in our country have become. If one supports a lying, traitorous, scumbag piece of manure for president, then they must have some things in common with him.
I don't know why, but my hubby has despised the music of both of them since around 2000. I don't remember them saying anything political back then, but hubby started turning the channel every time their music came on the radio or on tv. He cannot stomach listening to them. Maybe he knew back then that they were Clinton lovers.
LOL. And Algore sat on his momma's lap when he was in his twenties...
Aw crap. I hope Faith is a Republican.
Sounds like a Clinton whopper. When I was 13 or 14, my mother bought a VCR (it was a brand new phenomenon in MS. had to be in LA as well. Beta was one option. My mother bought VHS.) for me so I would quit skipping school to watch soap operas. If Tim is 38, then he is a few years older than I am. If his Mama bought a VCR when he was 11, 12, or 13, then she was spending a lot of money for the time. The story just doesn't ring true. Maybe when he was 15, 16, or 17.
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