Bob Dylan For Vice-President

Remember the first time you heard Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changing” and got all jittery when you heard the line “Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command.” Then, you held your head high when you heard the contempt in Dylan’s voice as he sang “Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand.” Remember how much you wished you could say that to every authority figure you knew, how it was so much stronger than N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police” because it used old, rich, white people speech against old, rich, white people. Remember how badly you wanted Dylan in the Oval Office. Maybe, the time has come.

Dylan told London’s The Times in an interview, “Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralizing. You can’t expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we’ve got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up… Barack Obama.” At first his candidate choice did not seem that surprising, but upon stroking my chin over the idea, it became a tad eerie. “[Obama]’s redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.” Hmm, “redefining” , “hope” , “change” . Sounds like Dylan is articulating Obama’s vocabulary, but it also sounds like Obama has injected Dylan’s vocabulary from the ‘60s directly into the veins of this year’s presidential election.

Is Obama the politician we always hoped Dylan would be but knew could never happen? Better yet, could Dylan be Obama’s destined running mate? Consider this: Dylan sang “The Times They Are A-Changing;” Obama leads the movement for change. Dylan gives Obama the old, white vote that McCain has on lock; Obama gives Dylan, well, Obama doesn’t have to give Dylan anything because the idea of this ticket gives me goose bumps. Think about Dylan’s final quote from the interview: “You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future.” Boo-yah. You’re not sure exactly what he’s talking about, but it sounds so good that you don’t care. Just like Obama.