Bruce Springsteen, who campaigned for President Obama four years ago, headlined his first 2012 campaign event with President Bill Clinton Thursday in the key swing state of Ohio.
Introduced by Clinton as "the coolest guy I ever met," Springsteen gave brief remarks during a solo acoustic set, in which he played five tracks and one new song — "Forward, and Away We Go" — which he wrote around President Obama's campaign slogan, "Forward."
Speaking in the city of Parma, Springsteen recalled Obama's election night in 2008. "It was an evening when you could feel the locked doors of the past finally being blown open to new possibilities. But then comes a hard daily struggle to make those possibilities real," said Springsteen.
"I came here today," he continued, "because i'm thankful for universal health care, the lack of which was for so long an embarrassment to our country; I'm thankful for a more regulated Wall Street; I'm thankful GM is still making cars... I'm here today because I'm concerned about women's rights. I don't have to tell you the dangers to Roe v. Wade under our opponent's policies."
Springsteen is also expected to appear at an Obama For America event Thursday in Ames, Iowa.