Two and a Half Men star Angus T. Jones blows appearance at RNC event

TAMPA, Fla. – Hopefully actor Angus T. Jones of Two and a Half Men isn’t planning a to quit his day job for a career in politics any time soon.

Jones, who plays the kid on the hit CBS show, spoke at an event Wednesday hosted by The National Journal, The Atlantic, Microsoft and Generation Opportunity in Tampa on the youth vote. He stumbled through softball questions from equally bad moderator Chelsea Clinton about who he planned to vote for in November and how he felt about voting for the first time and generally came off as unknowledgable about politics as a whole and the issues affecting young people.

The teenage actor turned 18 last October. He will begin his first semester at the University of Colorado next week. He attended the convention as part of a group of actors here representing The Creative Coalition, an organization that advocates for freedom of expression and funding for the arts in public schools.

The young actor said he wanted to be an advocate for young people, but the green spokesman professed that he isn’t in the same financial situation as most young Americans, who face an abysmally high jobless rate.

When asked straight out of the gate by National Journal Economics Correspondent Jim Tankersley if he was as worried as his peers about looking for work, the audience tepidly laughed, as Jones admitted, “I have been very fortunate about getting work.”

The native Texan also said that unlike most young people he doesn’t watch television, despite having been a TV star since he was eight.

In a particularly out-of-touch remark, Jones said that in his experience, he has not noticed a liberal bias in Hollywood.

“I feel like saying trending liberal bias in Hollywood is a little bit extreme. I feel like maybe the liberals are a little bit louder with the way they express their views,” he said, saying that there are “plenty of Republicans” in Hollywood, in response to a question about how he deals with the liberal bias in Hollywood.

“The way I deal with it, like I was saying, is just try to get everyone’s perspective,” he added.

Jones said he had been keeping up with the presidential election but that he did not know who he planned to vote for yet.

“I also hope that as a first-time voter, you get an ‘I Voted’ sticker,” Clinton said, lamenting that Hollywood doesn’t do a better job of making voting seem exciting to young people. She said Two and a Half Men should do an episode about Angus’ character, who is the same age as Angus is in real life, voting for the first time. Angus politely said he’d pitch her idea to the producers.

Overall the “Conversations with Millennials” event, held at the Improv Theater in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood, was a hit with convention goers. College students, young journalists and other convention goers packed the event to see young leaders such as Rep. Aaron Schock and MavPac co-chair George P. Bush talk about how to reform the education system and win over young voters. Other more well known members of the Creative Coalition also attended the event, including Tim Daly or Private Practice fame. But Jones was clearly the weak link in the program and the Creative Coalition ought to seriously consider finding a youth spokesperson who is more politically astute.