Springsteen backs Obama for US president

In a letter posted on his web site today, the musician known by his fans as "Brrruuuuuucce" endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president, siding with the first-term senator as "head and shoulders above the rest" -- an indirect put-down of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Obama "has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit," Springsteen wrote.

The endorsement is not likely to have an instant impact on any voters -- Springsteen's home state of New Jersey gave Clinton a wide margin of victory on Super Tuesday -- but it is a symbolic win for Obama as he battles Clinton's accusations of being an "elitist" who doesn't understand white working class voters. While Springsteen's roots are firmly planted in the Garden State, his music evolved over the past three decades to focus intensely on tales of woe in small-town America, a place that Obama last week labeled "bitter" over being left behind by the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Springsteen, without mentioning Clinton by name, rejected her criticisms: "At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues."

Springsteen, currently on tour with his E Street Band, will have one chance to make his Obama pitch directly to voters who still have a say in the nomination fight. His tour touches down in Charlotte and Greensboro April 27 and April 28, little more than a week before the key May 6 North Carolina primary.