Yes, but you're missing something very important. Something that we cannot fail to overlook:

At least we can be confident that, while giving that quote, Kerry pronounced all the words correctly.

An excellent point, and well taken.

While it warms my heart that Kerry adheres to the standard rules of English grammar, it does little to soothe my ruffled feathers, because it should not be an issue at all. If you're running for President you should be able to pronouce 'nuclear' correctly, period.

Why the hell else does the President have speech writers and hordes of assistants, if not to keep him from fucking up something as simple as a common three-syllable word in his native language?

I like the angry Marleigh. Let's see more of this!

I disagree with you, though. Of course John Kerry is courting the youth vote, and of course he's going to patronize them. Just like he patronizes the old people, the blacks, the Jews, the blue-collar workers, and the Hispanics when he's talking to those demographics. He's a politician--patronizing is his job.

Which is why I'm not very excited about John Kerry, although I plan to vote for him.

But, really, what's so wrong with what he said about hip-hop? To me, it seems like a fair statement coming from a culturally out-of-touch middle-aged white man. I've certainly never heard my Dad say anything as close to an endorsement for hip-hop. What other white politicians, particularly candidates for an office as important as President, are even mentioning hip-hop, much less saying it's "important"?

So give Kerry a break, huh? At least on this one.

It annoys me because of the very fact that it has nothing to do with him; he's very obviously not in touch with hip hop culture and that's fine. He is a middle-aged, wealthy white guy. Middle-aged white guys generally don't have much interest in hip hop unless they are financing it as record company execs. I'm okay with this.

What I'm not okay with is the constant stream of patronizing behaviour. Yes, that is what politicians do but I am sincerely offended by the fact that they think I (and everyone else near my age) is stupid enough to be won over—and God forbid, grateful—that a bunch of bloated, self-obsessed old men are paying any attention to us at all outside of constantly trying to sell us Diesel jeans and some perverted, conformist version of youthful rebellion.

It pisses me off because even when someone is trying to win my vote by telling me I'm smart and someone in power cares what I think, they're still telling me I'm too stupid to know better.

I disagree -- they're not trying to win your vote. Not at all. In fact, they are pretty sure your vote is securely in their camp solely by the fact that you and the demographic you represent really fucking hate Bush.

They're trying to go after the dumb people. Sadly, dumb people will be the swing in this election. Dumb people who are not rich or well-educated and have no idea that all of the current White House policy is very much against them. They're the ones Kerry is pandering to, and they're the ones who might be swayed by Kerry complimenting hip-hop.

Smart people like us know that commercial hip-hop has been stagnant for ten years now, ever since Dr. Dre made his first million. We also know Kerry is our only chance of getting Bush out of the White House. There's simply no need to campaign for our vote -- it's already there.

Unfortunately you're right about not having any choices, but Kerry does have to campaign for our votes because people our age are the very demographic that don't vote.

The Democrats have one big fear at this point: voters over 35. Those are the people with salaries and houses and two SUVs and kids and dogs. Those are the people who vote for Bush because they think (statistically speaking, from poll results) that Bush is still a more hard-line leader and thusly, can better lead a country facing the constant threat of terrorism.

I think these people are ignorant with very few critical thinking skills and barely veiled xenophobic tendencies, but what I think doesn't change the world. If it did, we wouldn't even be debating this.