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Above video: Mustaine at the 1992 Democratic National Convention for MTV News.

Speaking of news, you were a correspondent for MTV during the 1992 presidential election. What's your take on US politics in 2012?

"I'm just hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican. I can't bear to watch what's happened to our great country. Everybody's got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, 'Oh, Obama's doing such a great job...' I don't think so. Not from what I see.

"Looking at the Republican candidates, I've got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney's five boys have a $100 million trust fund. Where does a guy make that much money? So there's some questions there. And watching Newt Gingrich, I was pretty excited for a while, but now he's just gone back to being that person that everybody said he was – that angry little man. I still like him, but I don't think I'd vote for him.

"Ron Paul… you know, I heard somebody say he was like insecticide – 98 percent of it's inert gases, but it's the two percent that's left that will kill you. What that means is that he'll make total sense for a while, and then he'll say something so way out that it negates everything else. I like the guy because he knows how to excite the youth of America and fill them in on some things. But when he says that we're like the Taliban… I'm sorry, Congressman Paul, but I'm nothing like the Taliban.

"Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable. Also, just watching how he hasn't gotten into doing these horrible, horrible attack ads like Mitt Romney's done against Newt Gingrich, and then the volume at which Newt has gone back at Romney… You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I'm hoping that if it does come down to it, we'll see a Republican in the White House... and that it's Rick Santorum."

Let's get back to music. Now that Dave Ellefson is back in the band, would you say this is the best lineup of Megadeth you've ever had?

"Well, it's hard to answer that without risking hurting somebody's feelings. I mean, you've got Nick [Menza] and you've got [Jimmy] DeGrasso… But you know, Shawn [Drover] is the kind of drummer we wish we'd had in the beginning. David Ellefson commented on that, too – that if we'd met Shawn in the beginning, there would never have been any other drummers.

"As far as having Dave back in the band, yeah, it's been great. I think his self-inflicted time out [laughs] has been really good for us. He's matured a lot. I keep joking with him: 'Man, the last eight years you must have been practicing your butt off, 'cause you've gotten so much better.' But it's true. And Chris Broderick is great. He has no problem playing Chris Polland's music. When Marty [Friedman] was in the band, it was all about Marty. We let Chris Broderick spread his wings in the studio, and he's amazing – incredibly versatile."

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