In an appeal to young voters across America, eight Democratic presidential candidates slapped each other on the back and trading casual jabs during CNN’s America Rocks The Vote at Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean—the frontrunner in most current polls—said he knew he was the in the lead when he had to pick out buckshot from his rear-end, while Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., who aimed strong criticism at Dean’s gun control policies, said that when he hunts he always eats everything he shoots.

Outside the building, hundreds of supporters without tickets to the show waved signs and cheered for their candidate of choice in a frenzy that echoed for blocks in downtown Boston.

Eight of the nine Democatic hopefuls appeared at the event designed to appeal to youth voters, 18-25. Representative Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., who spoke at Harvard Monday night, chose to skip the event to campaign in Iowa.

The most heated moment in an otherwise light debate came just minutes into the first segment when Dean struggled to defend his comments to the Des Moines Register Saturday that the he sought to appeal to southern voters with Confederate flags on their pick-up trucks.

“I don’t think you’re a bigot, but I think that is insensitive, and I think you ought to apologize to people for that,” Rev. Al Sharpton told Dean. “You appear to be too arrogant to say ‘I’m wrong.’”

Edwards attacked Dean’s comments from the perspective of a southerner who said he was tired of the stereotypes that poor whites were all Confederate sympathizers.

“I grew up in the south. I grew up with the very people that you’re talking about,” he said. “The people that I grew up with, the vast majority of them, they don’t drive around with Confederate flags on pickup trucks.”

This focus put Dean on the defensive for the first few minutes of a debate made famous in the past for asking a then-candidate Clinton whether he preferred boxers or briefs.

CNN host Anderson Cooper tried from the beginning to turn the event away from typical campaign cliches, quipping that on college campuses their speeches have been converted into drinking games.

“When you say your stock phrases, somebody downs a shot,” he jabbed.

In something resembling a game of political truth or dare, three of the candidates—Kerry, Dean and North Carolina Senator John Edwards—admitted to having smoked marijuana.

Though none of the candidates is an alum of the College—Harvard students were well-represented at the event, as pre-selected questioners, pages and protesters outside.

Rami Sarafa ’07, an Arab-American Harvard student grilled Connecticut Senator Joseph I. Lieberman on his vote in favor of the PATRIOT Act.

“If you become president, how do you plan to protect the civil liberties of Arab-Americans?” he asked.