The Who's Pete Townshend: 'I'm a Bit of a Neocon'

Most rock musicians are typically quite liberal.

Apparently not legendary Who guitarist Pete Townshend who dropped a political bombshell Tuesday saying, "I'm a bit of a neocon" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

During a six-minute interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl for the joint online program "Spinners and Winners" launched in January by ABC and Yahoo! News, Townshend said he thought Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was going to win the election earlier this month.

"I thought he was throwing the money in such buckets," Townshend said. "And I thought Obama looked tired--because the hurricane must have come like a sock in the chops. I mean, the actual detail of having to deal with all of that stuff in the middle of a campaign."

"I try to stay away from American politics, I'm a bit of a neocon,' he surprisingly continued. "I like the idea of America as the world’s police force, and then we don’t have to do it."

"When we first started in 1967," Townshend elaborated, "a lot of our buddies were acid-heads who were trying to escape the draft. I felt denied the right in a sense to have a role in the future of the world as a soldier, as a mover, a shaker. When I found music, and I found a new way to speak and to express myself particularly to those young teenagers that we entertained when we started out, that became my politics."

As for the Who's anthem "Won’t Get Fooled Again,” Townshend said it's "an anti-politics song."

(HT The Weekly Standard)