Time is ticking and one year remains until decision day 2004, when voters will turn out to the polls and decide who will lead the nation for the next four years.

In an attempt to entice America’s youth to “Rock the Vote,” CNN hosted its own version of the debate-style discussion, reminiscent of MTV’s 1992 groundbreaking forum, where Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton answered the infamous question of: “boxers or briefs?”

Eight of the nine candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the presidency gathered on stage at Faneuil Hall Tuesday night for “America Rocks the Vote” and were asked to answer questions including whether they preferred “Macs or PCs” as well as the infamous undergarment innuendo.

Rep. Dick Gephardt was not present for the debate. According to host Anderson Cooper, he was “somewhere in Iowa, in a diner.”

Alethea Pieters, a student in the audience, asked the candidates which of the other people on stage they would choose to “party with.”

“If you get sick, who’s going to hold your hair back?” Pieters said.

Senator Joseph Lieberman said, “I’d like to party with the young lady who asked that question,” while the Reverend Al Sharpton said, “Mrs. Kerry.”

The candidates were also asked to admit whether they had ever used marijuana in the past.

“I never used marijuana,” Lieberman said. “Sorry.”

The more serious issue of gay marriage was also addressed.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich said if he were president, gay people would “have the right to marry.”

“If you want to rock the vote, you have to rock the boat,” Kucinich said. “You have to be willing to challenge the status quo.”

In response to a front-page picture published in the Boston Herald Saturday of Sen. John Kerry holding a pheasant that he had killed, Cooper read an e-mail question addressed to him that said, “Do you find it necessary to kill animals for photo-ops?”

Kerry said, “I make the point of eating what I kill.”

Heidi Buchanan, president of the Northeastern chapter of Students for Kerry, said that she thought “Kerry did amazing.”

Kerry also said his sense from young voters is that they believe “nothing that happens is real.”

“Every young person that I talk to in this country is disappointed by politics, by Washington,” Kerry said.

The current war with Iraq was also a topic brought to the table.

“The President has made our military weaker by overextending them, and he has, in fact, made America less secure,” Kerry said.

Gen. Wesley Clark said that he would, “not reinstate the draft.”

Sen. John Edwards said, “If I were President of the United States, I would put the Iraqi civilian authority under the control of the United Nations today.”

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean came under scrutiny for a comment he made in a telephone interview with the Des Moines Register Friday.

“I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks,” Dean said in the interview.

When questioned, Dean said, “We don’t have to embrace the Confederate flag and I never suggested that we did.”

Northeastern Student Government Association President Michael Romano, who was one of about 100 young voters selected to be a part of the panel, said he was not impressed with Dean’s performance.

“In a couple instances, Howard Dean floundered when asked a lot of tough questions. I just didn’t hear a lot of real answers,” Romano said.

In response to the 90-minute debate, Romano said, “In a setting as unrestricted and as open as [the debate], it’s nearly impossible for politicians to be phony.”

Lauren DeHart, a Providence resident who attended the debate, said she was not happy with the topics brought up to the candidates.

“I thought some of the questions asked misrepresented America’s young people,” DeHart said.

Greg Propper, a graduate of Tufts University and a Massachusetts resident, said that while he is “strongly leaning towards Dean,” his mind is not yet made up.

“[The candidates] did well for the most part, but there was a certain amount of skirting around the questions,” Propper said

– News correspondents Mike Naughton and Jenn Nelson contributed to this report.