By Ashley Mastronardi
Hey, guys! Last time you heard from me was right after the 2008 VMAs, when I was Britney Spears' golf-cart driver. MTV's been letting me do more cool stuff, so last week I visited my alma mater, Townsend Harris High School in Queens, New York, to check out their presidential election simulation. I was impressed by their versions of Barack Obama, John McCain and Joe Biden, but it was the mini Sarah Palin, a.k.a. senior Barbara Cvenic, who stood out as, well, adorable.
"Something happens to me when I put on these glasses," Cvenic, a self-professed "quiet type," told MTV News. "I guess playing a different person makes it easier to be yourself and talk and be outgoing, because you have this mask."
But although her Palin impression has been getting raves from her classmates, Cvenic admits it's been difficult portraying the veep candidate. "I don't agree with just about anything she says," she said. "But it's good to see a different side of things. ... It's made me a stronger Obama supporter if anything."
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In just over two weeks, one of the two men vying for our nation's highest office will be out of a job. One will get ready to move into the White House, and one will head home — or to one of his seven homes. Sure, the loser will still have a gig in the Senate, but with this year’s presidential campaign winding down, could either John McCain or Barack Obama — who hoisted verbal attacks at each other during the third and final debate Wednesday night — secure future work on the stand-up circuit? Last night, both candidates attended the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where they swapped punch lines about themselves and each other.
(Watch the video after the jump!)
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We've more than exhausted our allotment of boxing metaphors to describe the presidential campaign. But here goes one more: Whoever is in charge of picking the music played at Republican candidate Senator John McCain's rallies is either punch-drunk or down for the count.
You'd think after getting smacked down by the Foo Fighters, John Mellencamp, Heart and Jackson Browne (who actually filed suit against McCain for using "Running on Empty" in an ad broadcast in Ohio) that someone, anyone, in the McCain camp would vet song choices at least as thoroughly as they vetted vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (OK, maybe that's a bad example).
But in the latest song snafu, the guitarist for '80s rockers Survivor has asked the McCain/Palin campaign to stop using their "Rocky III" anthem "Eye of the Tiger" at events, according to a post on the band's official Web site.
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By Dave Romanski
It's October, and if we're being perfectly honest, despite the economy collapsing, despite the mortgage crisis and the war and all the issues facing the country right now, we have to admit this is the most fun election ever. And one source is responsible for a lot of that fun: YouTube.
Remember when a candidate used to say something stupid on the campaign trail? We used to be satisfied with a healthy run on the 24-hour cable news cycle, where a few pundits would dissect said statement and either shake their heads in righteous outrage or nervously try to appease whatever constituency was offended.
Even with cable news, you started to get the impression that politicians only said stupid, self-destructive things occasionally. And then YouTube happened.
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As told to Lindsey Thomas
When we flew down to Greensboro, North Carolina, we knew we'd only have 15 minutes to speak with Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden. With so little time, I had to make sure that we covered the issues that are most important to you.
First, I wanted to address the presidential debate, specifically Senator John McCain's attacks on Obama. On Friday night, the Republican nominee frequently said that his rival is naive and doesn't understand the issues. Obama dismissed the comments as tactics that didn't hold any weight. In an election year, it can be hard to sort out truth, fiction and perception, but Obama said he feels that American voters can tell the difference.
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We're not sure if Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden would want to add the following accomplishment to his already-lengthy bio, but it would probably be a wise move if he's looking to corral the desirable tween vote for running mate Barack Obama: Without him, there would be no Pete Wentz.
This is because, according to a report on People.com and then confirmed to MTV News by Wentz himself, his parents — Pete Sr. and Dale — met while working on a Biden Senate campaign in (he thinks) 1972.
"Yeah, it's true," he told MTV News in an e-mail Wednesday (August 27). "Maybe [it was in] '72? I'm not even sure. I'd have to ask my dad. I was born in '79, so it might've been later."
We're not sure either. Biden ran again for the Senate in 1978, so it could've been then too. Whatever. The '70s were a confusing time for everyone. Regardless, when we first heard the news, something went off in our MTV News brain: Where had we heard this story before? And then it hit us.
Wentz had first told us about his Biden connection way back in January, when we were out in Chicago to cover the Obama fundraiser he threw at Lakeshore Broadcasting Company, the dive bar he co-owns in his hometown. Both his parents were there to show their support for their son and Obama, and at one point, Wentz introduced us to his dad ... all while mentioning that his folks had met while campaigning for Biden.
We've got the video — plus a little bit of Pete Sr. stumping for Barack — after the jump.
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