Those Pubbies: Too Cool for School

I'm really bummed I couldn't get tickets to the inaugrial's youth concert, America's Future Rocks Today, although I guess I was just being lazy— only half of the DC Armory was filled for the likes of Hillary Duff and Stephen Baldwin. Some excerpts here:

"Young fans waved glow sticks and sang along to their favorite songs. And they went wild when President Bush and first lady Laura Bush made a quasi-surprise appearance. "How about Hilary Duff? She was fantastic," the president said. "How about 3 Doors Down? Pretty cool guys, right? Seem cool to me."
...
While the message was positive, the concert's cool quotient was in question. "I guess it would be a cool concert if you're a 17-year-old girl," said Roy Trakin, senior editor of Hits magazine. Not really, said Millicent Bolin, 17-year-old from New Orleans. Many in the audience were on school trips, and some weren't thrilled that the concert was on their itinerary. "We had to come," Millicent said. "I don't like these people ... they're too fake and mainstream." If the concert fell short on the hip scale, it wasn't for lack of trying. Stephen Baldwin took the stage on a skateboard. "Are you guys rockin' or what?" he enthused. While the star power was only so-so, according to Trakin, he gave the Republicans credit for persuading a half-dozen acts to perform. "It's not all country and polka," he noted. Still, the GOP line-up didn't compare to the Democrats' star-studded concerts last fall that featured Bruce Springsteen, the Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M. and other heavy hitters, Trakin said. "All the action is still on the Democrats' side," he said. "Bill Clinton had Fleetwood Mac ... George Bush has Hilary Duff."