20 Million Loud....

So, MTV has this campaign to try to bring the issues of the election to the young viewers...you know, those who watch MTV by doing numerous specials called Choose or Lose:20 Million Loud.

Well...I just finished watching one of those specials where they showed both Bush and Kerry on the campaign trail. It showed both candidates on their nation-wide tour and then finished with an interview with the both of them....

No wait...an interview with John Kerry and then an interview with John McCain. I guess Bush was too busy to talk to the one of the largest mediums when it comes to the youth vote. And MTV did make the point to say that they invited Bush to speak with him and he would not make himself available and sent McCain instead. Interesting...

You can read the transcript of what both had to say on MTV's website....but here were what I considered to be highlights of both of their interviews:

Question to John McCain: Why do you think a young person should vote for a Bush White House for another four years?

McCain: Because of President Bush's leadership after September 11th. You know, in case there's a serious war, it ain't going to be an old geezer like me that goes to fight it, it's going to be our [young people]. And we need to stay out of a war, and the best way we can stay out of a war is having strong leadership and good people.

Umm....I am sorry, but WHAT? Am I mistaken that President Bush's leadership after 9/11 was to bring us into a war??? That answer just makes no sense to me. McCain is right...we do need to stay out of war, but unfortunately...we are already too late for that.

And a Kerry highlight from the broadcast...

Question to John Kerry: Do you think another terrorist attack is inevitable?

John Kerry: The likelihood is that there will be another terrorist attack, sure. You can't harden every target in America. If someone wants to kill themselves, it's not hard to find a way and a place to do that somehow. The test is whether or not we've done everything possible, executed all the options available to us to make America as safe as possible. I don't believe we've done that today. Our ports are not as secure as they should be. We're not inspecting as many containers as we should to deter problems. We don't have the firehouses with the complement of staff they ought to have, we're cutting cops from the American streets. We don't have the protection of power plants, nuclear and chemical [facilities] that we ought to have. So there's more that we can do to protect America, and I think this president diverted the focus of homeland security and the war on terror in Afghanistan and we're paying an incredible price for that.

I thought that was a really brave and honest answer....to say that in all likelihood terrorists are going to continue trying in the future. Now, I can't picture Bush saying the same thing. I also liked Kerry emphasizing the things that we need to do in order to protect our country from another attack...knowing that the enemies of the United States are going to continue to try. I firmly believe that Kerry is right and the choices that we are paying a very high price for how Bush and Co. have chosen to fight the war on terror.

Now..there was a lot more than just those two exerpts...so, please check out the website or better yet, catch a rebroadcast of the Choose or Lose special.

It will be on again at:

Tues 9/7 at 9:30am
Wed 9/8 at 6:30pm
Thurs 9/9 at 10:00am
Sat 9/11 at 2:30am
Sat 9/11 at 6:30am
Sun 9/12 at 11:30am
Mon 9/13 at 11:00am

Shelley