I also came across a recent interview with Pete in the Rolling Stone which was quite interesting. He talks about some of his experiences with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Lead Belly, and shares some thoughts about the current American political landscape and the presidential race. See what he had to say about Obama below.

What do you think of Obama?
I guess if I had my choice, he’d be the one. I would’ve liked Kucinich. However, what I am for is I.R.V. Most people don’t even know what it is: Instant Recount Voting. When you vote, you vote for your first choice, your second choice and your third choice. I went to a school where we had proportional voting and that’s the way we voted for the student council. If your favorite already made it onto the council, then your second choice counted.

So you’d vote first for someone like Dennis Kucinich first?
That’s right. And if he didn’t make it, I’d vote for Obama and if he didn’t make it, I’d vote for Hillary. If she didn’t make it, I’d vote for Huckabee. Huckabee is a good speaker! He’s the most radical speaker of any of them.

Do you think America is on the verge of leaving these dark times with the impending election?
I’m absolutely convinced that the extraordinary tradition in America of speaking your mind has saved us decade after decade after decade. Right now I’m more optimistic than I was after Hiroshima. I felt then that surely it would only be 20 or 30 years until another of those bombs would be dropped and if we weren’t killed, we’d be poisoned by the fallout.

So you think the pendulum is going to shift back after eight years of Bush?
Well, I describe it this way. You know, if you bounce a ball on the sidewalk, the harder you throw it down, the higher it bounces. So, we may have some very good things happening. But who knows? There could be dirty tricks still tried.