Rolling Stone interviewer can't stop asking Bob Dylan to endorse Obama.

As summarized in Reason:

[D]idn't Obama change [the way with think about race]? And isn't it so that people who don't like him don't like him because of race? [Mikal] Gilmore takes five different swings at getting Dylan to agree. Some of Dylan's responses: "They did the same thing to Bush, didn't they? They did the same thing to Clinton, too, and Jimmy Carter before that....Eisenhower was accused of being un-American. And wasn't Nixon a socialist? Look what he did in China. They'll say bad things about the next guy too." On Gilmore's fourth attempt, Dylan just resorts to: "Do you want me to repeat what I just said, word for word? What are you talking about? People loved the guy when he was elected. So what are we talking about? People changing their minds?"...

[W]hat does Dylan think of Obama? Dylan first deflects with: "You should be asking his wife what she thinks of him."... Then: "He loves music. He's personable. He dresses good. What the fuck do you want me to say?"



... Gilmore follows that up with: "Would you like to see him re-elected?" Bob: I've lived through a lot of presidents. You have too! Some are re-elected and some aren't. Being re-elected isn't the mark of a great president."

... Dylan, on the night of Obama's inauguration, was performing and said from stage: "It looks like things are gonna change now." Remember that, Bob?...

... "Did I go down to the middle of town and give a speech?....I don't know what I could have meant by that. You say things sometimes, you don't know what the hell you mean.... I'm not going to deny what I said, but I would have hoped that things would've changed."

That comes pretty close to saying he's disappointed. And he's already said — in so many words — these politicians are all alike. But he catches himself and adds:

"I certainly hope they have."

Now, he's speaking in the present test and not the convoluted conditional of I would have hoped that things would've changed. But it's the present-tense of his own mind, a retreat from the political sphere. Gilmore finally gets a clue, which he expresses, sounding like someone who's spent a lot of time in the realm of cluelessness:

"I get the impression...that you're reluctant to say much about the president or how he's been criticized."