A conservative politician once again has adopted Bruce Springsteen's dark Vietnam tale "Born in the U.S.A." (RealAudio excerpt) as a theme song on the campaign trail.

While Springsteen has not yet spoken out about the move, the New Jersey

rock icon previously has opposed Republican politicians' use of the song

in campaigns.

This time, Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan played the martial rock track, which tells the tale of a Vietnam veteran struggling with life after war, as his introduction music before speaking at the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday (Aug. 14).

"Thank you, Bruce Springsteen, for that tremendous introduction," Buchanan said before making a speech espousing a strong military and a crackdown on illegal immigration before thousands at the GOP fundraising event.

While Springsteen has never endorsed the use of "Born in the U.S.A.," off the 1984 album of the same name, that hasn't stopped Republican politicians from appropriating it. During the 1996 presidential race, Republican nominee Bob Dole blasted the song at a stop in Red Bank, in Springsteen's home state.

"Just for the record, I'd like to make clear that it was used without my permission and I am not a supporter of the Republican ticket," Springsteen wrote at the time in a letter to the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press newspaper.

Representatives for Springsteen at Shore Fire Media did not return calls about the Buchanan speech by press time. Buchanan's spokesperson also did not return calls.

While the chorus to "Born in the U.S.A." might sound like a patriotic anthem to some ears, the song's verses tell a complicated story of a blue-collar Vietnam veteran who finds himself in a struggle to regain his life after returning from the jungles of Southeast Asia. "I'm 10 years burning down the road/ Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go," Springsteen sings on the track, which was a top-10 hit in 1984.

"People are always going to understand things differently," said Jim Cullen, author of "Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition" (1997). "Political ideology is like popular music in that its elasticity is why [people] use it. It's easier to say, 'I'm for family values' than to say what those values are."

During his speech, Buchanan — one of the most right-leaning candidates running on the Republican ticket — likened himself to former President Ronald Reagan, the first politician to use Springsteen's image in a stump speech.

"America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts," Reagan said during a New Jersey stop on his 1984 re-election campaign. "It rests in the message of hope so many young people admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen."

In 1980, Springsteen called Reagan's first election "terrifying." After the Reagan speech, he told Rolling Stone, "You see the Reagan re-election ads on TV — you know, 'It's morning in America' — and you say, 'Well, it's not morning in Pittsburgh. It's not morning above 125th Street in New York. It's midnight and, like, there's a bad moon risin'."

In his speech, Buchanan painted himself a supporter of the working class, an image that jibes with Springsteen's public persona as a blue-collar hero. But Buchanan's stands against affirmative action and immigration likely would not sit well with the artist known to many as "the Boss." His 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad takes a sympathetic look at people crossing the border from Mexico. In 1996, Springsteen performed at a rally opposing a California measure to dismantle affirmative action there.

Last year, Springsteen released the stark demo for "Born in the U.S.A." (RealAudio excerpt of demo version) on his box set Tracks. But he has yet to play the song on the U.S. leg of his reunion tour with the E Street Band, which recently wrapped up a record 15-night stand at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J.

Charles R. Cross, editor of "Backstreets: Springsteen, the Man and His Music," said Springsteen and his fans fret too much about politicians' adopting his songs.

"We hold Bruce's work a little more sanctimoniously than others', like Bob Seger or Tom Petty," he said. "That's because he hasn't sold his songs for commercials, and because he's the embodiment of an American ideal that we can't attain."