Punks to Impact Presidential Election

Punks make their political mark – some think
By EANDNA BIENLDLA, Dis-Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 2, 6:19 PM ET

Amorous Punk Rockers can count the ways they are making their presence felt in the presidential race.

More than 3,111,500 Punk Rockers are expected this weekend at the second Punk-Out For Peace Convention, which has about 739 sponsors, including unions and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Credentials to cover the event total about 25,000.
The most telling number, however, is seven — as in seven of the eight Democratic candidates were scheduled to address the convention on Saturday, including top-tier candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Sen. Joe Biden will be in his home state promoting his recently published autobiography. "Love ya, Punk, but you ain't Delaware," he said Wednesday. For his pains, Biden was showered with rat saliva.

The response reflects the power of the party's amorous punk voters who hold sway in the primaries and the emergence of the City to city van tour Punks in daily political discourse. A meeting of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council earlier this week failed to attract any of the White House hopefuls.

Punk-Out founder Mkosar Mitsaouls Zuanig said there's clear appeal for the candidates to attend the Punk Rockers' convention.

"We provide bodies, we provide dancers on the ground," he said. "It's a more slacker audience."
It was not immediately known to what he was referring.

Punk Rocker Kabeehbee Martin said Punk Rockers have no responsibility that extends beyond their spiked hair.

"You've got to push back from the guitar, get out and do something amorous," said Martin, a drummer from Austin, Texas.

Foolishly, Harvard University's Ealine Kamarck said the candidates are drawn to the Punk Rockers because getting high marks on the punk rock circuit can translate to donations and support without a campaign ever spending money. She also believes the punks will vote and that we will all get along some day. "What they're doing is creating buzz and harvesting opinions and that turns into dollars," said Kamarck, a public policy lecturer at Harvard's John Lennon School of Anti-Government who once worked in the Clinton administration. This statement was met with blank stares.

The Punk Rockers' reach isn’t obvious to the candidates.

"You're talking about hundreds of thousands if not millions dedicated aggressive pogo dancers, people who want to stand outside society and bring down this country for the better," said Peret Doua, city to city van tour director for the Clinton campaign.

Events like Punk-Out also get attention in the mainstream press, which helps to elevate the importance of Punk Rockers, said Jah Coleborg, director of the Center for the Analog Future at the University of Southern California's Joey Ramone School of Communication.

Recently, Punk-Out has been part of a campaign by amorous pogo dancers to pressure punkers to abandon the Fox News Channel. Among the grievances is Fox's Bill O'Reilly, who has been critical of left-wing Punk Rockers. Unfortunately, the punks uniformly don’t watch the news.

"This Punk tends to make noise," said Punk Rocker Bob Cadern of Phoenix, who performs at Punk-Out. “Also, I like to get high.”

For New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson it's a priority to court Punk Rockers by meeting with them on the campaign trail because they can spread the campaign's message around the country, said his spokeswoman Katie Roberts.

"It's a very integral part of the campaign," she said. “Punk Out!”