Ani DiFranco is not an easy person to reach these days. The always provocative and outspoken DiFranco has a new album hitting stores September 30th, and a host of high-profile gigs to attend to, including a performance alongside James Taylor at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. But we managed to track her down on her boyfriend’s cell phone somewhere in the Central Time Zone to talk with the Buffalo, NY native about potential Vice Presidents, a brilliant plan to pay off Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt, and the dangers of judging presidential candidates based on their private parts.

Crawadddy!: Hey Ani, how are you?

Ani DiFranco: Good. I’m doing great.

Crawdaddy!: Excellent. Well, let’s get started with presidential politics, a subject that’s near and dear to your heart. Now, this will be old news by the time this interview is published but who are you hoping gets Obama’s VP nod?

DiFranco: Oh shit, I don’t know. I don’t give a fuck. I just want Obama to be president. Sorry, I should have a more sophisticated answer than that. But for me, it doesn’t matter. I don’t think he needs anything or anyone to compensate for his shortcomings. I think that he’s an intelligent, educated, thoughtful, caring person and that’s all I care about in a president.

Crawdaddy!: You’ve got a lot of nice things to say about Obama, but you were a vocal Kucinich supporter during the primary.

DiFranco: Yeah, I mean, I still am a Kucinich supporter. He’s still in government and an awesome Capitol Hill presence. He’s the one guy out there working to get George W. impeached. Which, if you read the letter of the law and the job description, that’s their job. The President broke the law, you need to impeach him. To make it a matter of politics ain’t right and Dennis is just so much bigger than politics. He’s somebody who breathes a breath of sanctity into Washington politics. I tell you what, I really wanted to play at the RNC [Republican National Convention]. I think it’s time to build some bridges.

Crawdaddy!: You could pack up your guitar and go.

DiFranco: [laughs] Yeah, I guess I could. You know, all those people who are going to Denver to protest Obama’s nomination because of loyalty to Hillary—they should just send her money they would have spent on airfare, whatever the fuck. If you really want to help her, send her the cash.

Crawdaddy!: You’re referring to her campaign debt?

DiFranco: Yeah. It’s huge.

Crawdaddy!: Somewhere around $23 million, I believe.

DiFranco: Yeah, send her the cash. Leave Obama alone.

Crawdaddy!: Sort of like “leave Britney alone!” Well, not really. Anyway, speaking of Hillary, you seem to harbor some negative feelings towards her. That’s a bit surprising for someone who is so strongly associated with the feminist movement.

DiFranco: Hillary’s not really my kind of person. I think it’d be a mistake to lump in together everybody with a twat. Like, “oh, you’re a feminist so you support the one with the pussy instead of the dick.” But people and politics are so much more complicated. She’s not my kind of politician. She’s so centrist, so calculated. It’s very frustrating. Obviously, that’s why I go for Kucinich. He doesn’t worry about what is the popular thing to say.

Crawdaddy!: Sure, but Obama’s campaign, at least since the end of the primary, has been just as calculated and controlled as any other campaign in recent history—including Clinton’s. As an Obama supporter, does that disappoint you?

DiFranco: Of course the campaign has become that way. Look at what they’re up against. Look at what they’re living with. The lowest common denominator has been the media for so long. And that’s pretty low. If they’re setting the bar for the discourse, for the amount of bullshit you have to react to on a daily basis, what are you gonna do? It’s a circus. If you don’t hang on, you’ll fly off the crazy ride. You can’t be above it all on your own. You have to have some support—some kind of community to take a more sophisticated tack. If everyone around you is grinding you down to their level, you need to do something to hold your own. To be an idealist in Washington or an unafraid free-speaking free-thinker is difficult. I just hope he can play the game well enough to get elected.

Crawdaddy!: Speaking of Obama, you’re heading to Denver this week to play a show as part of the Democratic National Convention.

DiFranco: Yeah, I’m excited. I just got called up by these people putting on a show. Democratic supporting artists were going to play. I said “sure.”

Crawdaddy!: Do you have any other plans for Denver besides the gig? Maybe sneak a floor pass for the convention?

DiFranco: I don’t know. I’m only going to be there for a hot minute. I don’t know if I’ll be hanging out on the floor.

Crawdaddy!: Well, I’ll be on the lookout for you on TV just in case—maybe you’ll even wind up wearing one of those funny convention hats.

DiFranco: Yeah, cool.

Crawdaddy!: Well, you’ve also got a new album coming out in a month or so. I’ve heard an advance and it’s terrific. It really continues your tradition of political outspokenness. Do you get frustrated that it’s only you and a precious few others still doing this kind of politically aware songwriting?

DiFranco: Yeah, there are not a lot of political writers out there. I guess if I had luxury of being frustrated about it, I might be. But I live in New Orleans and straight up national government is fucking people over still and racism is an ongoing oppressive factor like the heat. So, while I wish I had more inspiration in terms of other political writers, it’s probably just reflective of the whole society. For some time, we’ve been lulled into a consumerist mindset—away from the power and responsibility of our citizenship. I just saw a commercial on TV from some credit card company saying, “we’re a consumer culture and there’s nothing wrong with that blah blah…we understand how important shopping is.” I was like, “wow!” That was such a strikingly wrong sentence to me. The basis of how we’ve had our democracy turned into a corporate-ocracy, or whatever the fuck.

Crawdaddy!:  Do you see it as a responsibility? For artists to speak out on issues of the day?

DiFranco: Yeah, in that human beings as a group have that responsibility. It’s a mistake to put a magnifying glass on artists. No matter who you are, what your job is, you share equal responsibility. That includes speaking out when you see injustice and imbalance. I imagine you’d have more political songwriting if you had more political discourse that was inspiring and honest. If you could feel around you that a lot of people were working for change, some of them would be artists. You look around yourself for inspiration. If nothing much inspiring is going on, you know, if America can make a change and elect Obama, that might start a very big ball rolling. Nothing succeeds like success and people need inspiration. It stands to reason that society would call out to artists to be inspired but the opposite is also true.

Watch: Ani DiFranco [at youtube.com]

Read more articles like this:

Questions and Answers with James McMurtry

Of Great and Mortal Men

Questions and Answers with Ted Nugent