Scenario: You're Curt Smith of Tears for Fears. While you are an undeniably talented cat, your last solo album's sales just barely broke into quadruple digits. You've recently become a U.S. citizen, and you happen to have some well thought out, progressive ideas on politics. Most important, your next solo album is coming out in a week and a half.

There you have the backstory for Smith's open letter to the Huffington Post in support of Barack Obama, a letter that is titled after, and begins with a shameless plug for, the aforementioned new solo album. To be fair, Smith owns up to the opportunism at the top of the letter, and his statements about Obama are intelligent, eloquent, and well reasoned. But might he not have made them, say, closer to Election Day? Stay tuned for news of Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley's eagerly awaited Clinton endorsement.