Please, No More "Born To Run"

Imus was a little too excited that he could see Michael Graham this morning, thanks to the wonders of technology. Graham, who normally calls in for his interviews, appeared live via satellite, leading Imus to exclaim, "He looks good!"

Things quickly turned, however, as Imus and Lou excoriated Graham for choosing Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run as one of his favorite songs. To quote Lou: "Yawn, snore."

"It's the best rock song ever," said Graham, one of at least three Imus in the Morning guests to select it as a top five song. "You have to work down from there."

Graham, a popular radio host on Boston's WTKK, has zero problem with the fame whores who crashed the White House state dinner last week, saying, "I love this couple!"

More to the point, he added, "I love that we still live in an America where a smokin' hot blond and a guy in a tux can get in anywhere, theoretically."

He blamed the blunder on the White House staff and not on the Secret Service, chuckling that the White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers would not appear before Congress because it violated the separation of powers.

"I know Jefferson and Madison were going, 'Whatever you do, be sure to protect the people who head up invitations!'" Graham said.

His mood darkened at the mention of President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan beginning next year. He described the strategy, which includes a drawdown by summer 2011, as a "surge-surrender."

"The President doesn't have the authority on foreign policy and national strength to just be able to say, 'We don't need to be in Afghanistan, let's just blow the crap out of them when we need to, and go home,'" said Graham. "He needs the political cover to get the withdrawal that he's gonna do anyway. He's going to surrender, he's gonna get out."

The troop deployment is "purely political" and "tragic," in Graham's view. Were he deciding policy, the United States would get out of Afghanistan, leave behind 8-10,000 troops and a couple of bases, and then blow up anything that looks like Al-Qaeda.

"If a guy named 'Al' whose last name starts with 'Q' goes for lunch, you blow him up," said Graham. Iraq, he believes, was always the more important war because Iraqis want to be free.

"They're a long way away, they're generations away, but they're on their way," he said. "Their dream is one day, the most famous suicide bomber in Iraq can also have multiple girlfriends spread across the country, and also humiliate his wife on national television."

-Julie Kanfer