A Conversation With Barack Obama

Sad reality: I am old enough to be listening to the same music as the Democratic Nominee for the Presidency of the United States. Not only that, but our tastes in music run toward the Dylanesque. Go figure. This is just shameless homering on my part: It's damn cool that the guy from Chicago made the cover of The Rolling Stone. Just because of that am I going to vote for Mr. Obama. Politics is the art of the possible.

Randy Shiner


A Conversation With Barack Obama

The Candidate Talks About The Youth Vote, What's On His iPod and His Top Three Priorities As President

JANN S. WENNER
Posted Jul 10, 2008 3:28 PM
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Shortly after Barack Obama claimed victory in the fight for the Democratic nomination, I joined him aboard his chartered 757 campaign plane as a member of the press corps. He was flying from Chicago to Appleton, Wisconsin, for a town-hall meeting, one of a series he was doing in Midwestern and swing states to address constituencies he might have missed during the primaries — and, of course, to get some warm-up practice for any town-hall debates he has with John McCain.

The first thing I notice about the plane is how low-key it is, all coach seating from back (the press) to front (the candidate). There is no separate compartment for this potential president; he just holds down the second row for himself and his newspapers. There are no more than 10 staffers on the plane, and a dozen or more rows are empty, separating the senator from the Secret Service contingent and two dozen members of the traveling press corps. It's not a big day or a big event: The primaries are done, and none of the media big names are along.

So far in this campaign, despite their evident admiration, Obama has held the press at a respectful distance. The limit for our interview is going to be 50 minutes, which I think says a lot about him and his campaign. Most every other presidential candidate I've met and interviewed has tended to be gregarious, talkative almost to a fault, eager to please and eager to impress.

Obama, by contrast, is quiet, collected and effortlessly precise.

His calmness is reflected in the smooth and controlled campaign he is overseeing. In conversation, his thoughtfulness is punctuated by an easy wit, much as his clockwork campaign is a stage for his eloquence and charismatic gifts as a leader.

I am often asked, "What's he like?" If you really want to know, read Dreams From My Father.

It's all in there, and it's a wonderful piece of writing in its own right.
When we are done, his parting words are delivered with a dazzling smile: "OK, brother — take care."

You were endorsed by Bob Dylan a few days ago. What's that mean to you?I've got to say, having both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen say kind words about you is pretty remarkable. Those guys are icons.

Do you have any favorite Dylan songs?

I've got probably 30 Dylan songs on my iPod. I think I have the entire Blood on the Tracks album on there. Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is "Maggie's Farm." It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric.

When did you begin to think you could or should be president? At what stage in your life did that idea first dawn on you?

I would distinguish between thinking that, in the abstract, I could make some better decisions being president than the current occupant, and believing that, in a very concrete way, being president was something I would pursue. I would say that it wasn't until I won my Senate primary and then went to the Democratic convention in 2004 that I had a sense that the message I was delivering might resonate with a broad cross section of the American people.

So it was that response at the Democratic convention that year?It wasn't just at the convention. We had gotten a pretty powerful response while I was running in the primary in Illinois. After I won, there was a real sense that people were eager to move beyond some of the old arguments.

Read the entire interview in the new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands June 20, 2008.