Earlier this week, Darren Pope of Examiner.com conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On politics and this week's U.S. presidential elections:

Mustaine: "It's disappointing that people get so uptight about it, so there's not really any positive way for me to talk about it. I love our country and I love our people, I'm just glad that this is over and we can get back to being a nation again. You know, I pray for our president, and I respect the office of the presidency and it's time to support him in his job. You know, we live in the greatest nation in the world, and it's a hard job. The thing I love most about our country is it's a democracy and the people… I support the most are the people in the military. It's like, some of these guys, it's like the movie 'An Officer And A Gentleman', they have nowhere else to go. Many of them are troubled young men and women, many of them came from broken homes."

On Hurricane Sandy:

Mustaine: "My prayers and heart go out to the people on the eastern seaboard, the survivors of Sandy. I heard somebody today talking, and he said that he was happy that Sandy happened, and I thought, 'You have got to be kidding, you did not say that.' I, for one, am never happy when something like that ever happens to some of my countrymen and my thoughts and prayers go out to them. I‘m hoping that in our very small way we can bring some happiness to some of the people on the East Coast for that 90 minutes that we play that they can forget their troubles and just have some entertainment, just remember times that weren't quite so difficult as they are right this moment, and just try to put the pieces back together."

Read the entire interview from Examiner.com.