The North Campus Media Union turned into the forefront of the Presidential race when MTV’s Choose or Lose taped its town hall forum with Vice President Al Gore.  It was an open discussion with the presidential candidate, allowing students the chance to fire hard-hitting questions that concern all young adults.  At least that is what was supposed to come across on camera.

What they failed to show was the two days worth of interviews to carefully compose cross-section of the student body.  Of course, it looked more like an after school special, or an episode of the Mickey Mouse Club, minus Jennifer Love-Hewitt.  The students arrived with two prepared questions for the Vice President and a traumatic story as to why they should be allowed to ask their question.  The average student had no chance of making it on TV; they would not create drama or sympathy on camera.

When the day of taping came, the questions and speakers were set in stone.  Vice-President Gore had plenty of time to script his answers so he would sound prepared once the cameras rolled.  However, what he didn’t expect was the fifty or so Students for Bush rallying just outside the studio.

As it turned out, the protests by Bush supporters were not as large as expected, but they still got their point across.  In fact, during a commercial break, when Gore would take random questions from the audience, an aide mentioned how Gore was worried and a little upset about the protests outside.  But, once taping resumed the open discussion ended and it was back to the charade.

When the show aired on MTV, it did not seem to be a candid discussion of pressing topics, but instead a boring exchange between rehearsed questions and answers.  It was obvious that the students questions were picked ahead of time to make Gore appear both knowledgeable and “hip.”  After two minutes of personalizing the situation some softball issue like the legalization of marijuana worked their way in as if legalizing marijuana is one of the most plaguing troubles facing America today.  Even though some real issues were brought up, like education, racial profiling, and social security, the general impression was that college students today do not care about the economic and social future of America.

Overall, the show could be summed up in one word—boring.  Imagine that, Al Gore boring? Go figure…  Maybe it was not interesting because of the lack of surprises that arose, since everything was planned.  There weren’t any unexpected turn of events, no straightforward answers given, and no opposition to Gore’s opinion.  MTV did not deliver on its promise of getting to the issues that are the most important to young adults.  Instead, it probably made most students who are actually interested in politics and registered to vote tune out after being offended by the condescending answers that were pre-rehearsed and answered with a third grade vocabulary.

An alternative for students who really wanted to make an educated choice for President was the first presidential debate.  It featured Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush facing real political issues and answering unknown questions.  These two candidates provided real entertainment, as they battled it out to get the last word and their point across to voters.

When both were shown in a split screen, it was amusing to see the facial expressions of each as the other answered the question.  With Bush’s “fuzzy math” and Gore’s “Can I just say one more thing Jim…” you could see that there was nothing holding either of these two back.

Some of the key issues that created controversy were the RU-486 abortion pill, educational vouchers, and of course the future of social security.  The candidates’ answers seemed to follow party lines, and each response created a chance for the other to spin off a rebuttal.  It was nice to see an open exchange on pertinent issues, unlike that seen on MTV.

If a question was asked where a jab could be taken on the opponent’s policy, it was taken.  The only difference was that Gore did it with arrogance while Bush had a more playful look upon him.  Overall, Bush won on personality while Gore may have edged out as the winner because of all of his past experience.  However, it has been a proven fact that voters chose based on looks and personality just as much as on political platforms.

As far as Choose or Lose goes, it definitely lost.  Students were scammed into skipping a day of classes to serve as a colorful background for an hour-long infomercial.  Their time, and everyone else’s, could have been better-spent watching paint dry.  After all, that’s probably Gore’s favorite pastime when he’s not inventing stuff.