WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney can’t disavow the conservative views he embraced as candidate during
the Republican presidential primaries, President Barack Obama says in a new interview. However, Obama acknowledges that he
too is struggling against public skepticism because of the slow economic recovery.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Obama
covered a range of topics, from his relations with the Pentagon to his reflections on race to his two acclaimed though
abbreviated moments of public singing.
“I can sing,” he said matter-of-factly. “I wasn’t worried about being able to
hit those notes.” The interview, conducted earlier this month by Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, will appear in the
issue of the magazine that hits newsstands Friday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the interview ahead of
publication.
For Obama, the magazine interview and its cover portrait will complete a week of outreach to young
voters, including a two-day tour of three college campuses in key election swing states and an appearance on NBC’s “Late
Night with Jimmy Fallon.”
Analyzing the election campaign ahead of him, Obama avoided characterizing Romney as a
flip-flopper, a common criticism Romney faced during the Republican primary contests, and instead tagged him as a candidate
who willfully embraces the Republican Party’s most conservative views.
“I don’t think that their nominee is going to
be able to suddenly say, ‘Everything I’ve said for the last six months, I didn’t mean,'” Obama said. “I’m assuming that
he meant it. When you’re running for president, people are paying attention to what you’re saying.”
Obama’s answer
underscores an approach his advisers have been emphasizing lately, casting the race as one of sharp contrasts between two
distinct candidates, parties and ideologies. He said his own political burden is describing to Americans the progress that
has occurred during his administration and how, if sustained, it could lead to economic security. “There’s understandable
skepticism,” he said, “because things are still tough out there.”
Discussing his relationship with the military, Obama
said, in the clearest terms yet, that he had to rein in the Pentagon as he sought to close down the war in Iraq on schedule
and re-focus the military effort in Afghanistan. He said that with the help of then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he made
it clear to the military brass that “I very much believe in civilian control of our military, and that military decisions are
in service of strategies and broader conceptions of diplomacy that are made here in this White House.”
“They know I
care about them and I respect them, and I think they respect me and listen to what I say,” he said. “They understand that
I’m the commander in chief.” He said the operation to kill Osama bin Laden illustrated the “constructive relationship” he
has developed with the Pentagon.
On Iraq, he said he had fulfilled his promise to end the war responsibly. “It wasn’t
as fast as some people would have liked,” he said. “It was probably faster than some folks in the Pentagon would have
liked.”
Reflecting on whether there had been a change in racial politics since he became president, Obama said he has
never accepted the idea that his election represented a “post-racial period.” Still, he said, he often hears people remark
about the importance to black children of having an African-American president and African-American first
lady.
“That’s hugely important,” he added, “but you shouldn’t also underestimate the fact that there are a whole
bunch of little white girls and white boys all across the country who just take it for granted that there’s an
African-American president. That’s the president they’re growing up with, and that’s changing attitudes.”
No
interview with Rolling Stone is complete without cultural touchstones. Obama recalled watching singer Mick Jagger rehearse
for his appearance during a February White House tribute to the blues and was impressed by the respect the Rolling Stones
frontman displayed toward lesser-known and younger musicians. He said Jagger recalled the generosity he had experienced upon
meeting blues greats like Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. King, and displayed “the sense of him wanting to do that same thing, that it
all comes full circle.”
As he often does, Obama said he is not a fan of television news, though he admitted to liking
Comedy Central’s satirical “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, whom he called “brilliant.” ”It’s amazing to me the degree
to which he’s able to cut through a bunch of the nonsense,” the president said.