KID REPORT
July 30, 2004
The Final Day at the Democratic Convention
TFK Kid Reporters talk with a Democratic star, a movie star and a couple of political commentators
 Lily meets U.S. Senate candidate and upcoming Democratic star, Barack Obama. |
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From one of the biggest political stars of the Democratic Party to one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, we had a chance to interview such a wide variety of people on the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Fellow reporter Avery Stone and I met two of the hosts of the CNN show, Crossfire. I met Barack Obama, a state senator of Illinois who is running for the U.S. Senate and spoke to the convention on Tuesday. We also met the founder of Kids for Kerry, and actor Ben Affleck. The day was full of surprises.
|  Lily and Avery meet movie star Ben Affleck who is campaigning for Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry. |
Meeting a Rising Star in the Democratic Party
TIME magazine invited Obama to meet with a small group of its editors and reporters and I was among them. Obama is very involved in education and health care. At the meeting, I asked Obama if he thinks kids’ issues are being addressed enough in this election. “We continually have to highlight and focus our attention on future generations,” he responded. “I think the Democrats have an opportunity to speak to education in a way that would be relevant to you and you parents.”
He said President Bush has addressed education with the “No Child Left Behind” act, but it has not been effective because he “left the money behind.” It was really exciting being at an event with very important political reporters.
|  Lily talks to Crossfire's Tucker Carlson. |
Interviewing a Kid Activist
Avery and I also got to interview Ilana Wexler, a 12-year-old girl who started Kids for Kerry, an organization for kids who aren’t old enough to vote, but support Kerry. She said that when she went on a trip to Central America and Europe, the people there were asking about the war and were very negative towards the United States, so she felt that she had to do something.
Getting in on the Political Crossfire
Later in the day, I interviewed Tucker Carlson, a Republican political commentator from the CNN show Crossfire. Crossfire is a show where people debate about politics. I asked him if he felt awkward being a Republican at the Democratic Convention. He said "No," and that people had been very nice. He said he liked debating as a kid. When I asked him if people get annoyed at him for debating as an adult, he said, “Very…People don’t like to debate. People don’t like to have their ideas challenged. They like you to agree with them, and when you don’t, they get annoyed.”
|  Avery gets the political scoop from Democratic adviser James Carville. |
Avery got the chance to talk to another host of Crossfire, Democrat James Carville. Carville worked for President Bill Clinton, but is married to Mary Matalin, a Republican who advises President George W. Bush. He said that he thinks politics is a great career. “Usually you can do dull, important, or fun, unimportant things but in politics, you can do fun, important things,” he said. “Politics is the only thing I know that’s fun and important and that’s what makes it really great.”
The guest on Crossfire was Affleck, movie star and California's poker champion. After the taping, Avery and I got to ask Affleck a few questions. Having been a part of the Democratic National Convention, Avery wanted to know which was the tougher game: politics or poker. Affleck told us politics is definitely the tougher game, since it's much more emotional and never as clear as the hand your dealt from a deck of cards.
I asked Affleck what he thought of Hollywood stars getting into politics. “Well, there’s Governor (Arnold) Schwarzenegger…he used to be, actually a very successful actor…One of the things that’s encouraging about that is it represents citizen politicians, people that aren’t career politicians.”
Throughout the DNC, we met and interviewed so many interesting people, from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to former Senator Max Cleland to Ben Affleck! It has been an extremely exciting week in Boston.
