When I found out that President Obama’s campaign made a “2012 Campaign Playlist” on Spotify, I flipped out a little (well, maybe more than a little). Scrolling through the songs, the selection I discovered was pretty impressive, albeit confusing.

“We Used to Wait” by Arcade Fire, a nice pick from a fantastic album.

“You Got the Love” by Florence + the Machine, which is great because Flo can do no wrong (like, actually).

“Tonight’s the Kind of Night” by Noah and the Whale, whose inclusion gives Obama a whole lot of hipster cred.

There are also a lot of legends on the playlist that give it some spirit:

“We Take Care of Our Own” by Bruce Springsteen: A good choice since not including The Boss would have been a form of political suicide.

“Your Smiling Face” by James Taylor: Flower power and kumbaya represent.

“The Weight” by Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul gives this playlist a little respect.

But then there were some artists that made me question the president’s judgement, like “The Best Thing about Me is You” by Ricky Martin and “Different People” by No Doubt. I just wouldn’t have guessed that Obama enjoyed these two, so I was a little surprised.

Looking at this conglomeration of songs was confusing for me at first. (When was the last time you heard U2 and Ricky Martin on the same playlist?)

But when I thought about these songs as a representation of the Obama 2012 campaign message, the groupings made more sense. The artists come from all kinds of genres, and they create such starkly different sounds, that I would be surprised if there wasn’t a song on this playlist that appealed to everyone’s musical tastes. I may be reading into this too much, but it looks like Obama’s campaign is trying to widen the base of Obama’s political appeal through this playlist. Good move, Obama campaign aides.

But another look at the song titles shows that they hold to the same narrative that Obama has constantly preached: unity, the strength of the American people, and of course the kicker, hope.

Yes, these themes may seem overused and trite at this point in time, since Obama’s themes have virtually been the same since he started campaigning for his first presidential term back in 2006. But what would you rather have? A guy like Mitt Romney who robotically leads Florideans (Read: retirees) in “America the Beautiful” or Obama, who sings Al Green at the Apollo?