The one you've been waiting for

Billy Joel has endorsed Barack Obama or, as New York Magazine puts it, self-popped his cherry for Obama. To all of you who’ve been on the fence about this one, let this decide it. As U.S. News reports, Joel laid it on the line at the National Press Club earlier today:

“I get insulted when I’m at a show and somebody starts talking to me about political stuff—you know I didn’t come here to hear that song,” Joel told luncheon guests at the National Press Club in Washington. “In a way, it’s condescending.”

In fact, the Obama fundraiser was the first political one he’s ever done. “People who pay for your tickets, I don’t think they want to hear who you’re going to vote for and how you think they should vote,” Joel said. Throughout his four-decades-long career, Joel actively avoided political endorsements until now. “So I kind of blew that one out of the water,” he said.

Why the change of heart? “Over the last few months, there’s a quote that keeps occurring to me, and it’s a Dante quote, ‘The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, OK, I don’t want to be in that place.’ ” Joel explained, not getting the quotation quite right. “So I did the fundraiser.”

There’s a quote that keeps occurring to me, too: “Only the good die young.”