Texas Republicans for Obama

I have heard most of the GOP voting for Obama is strategic: we disdain them both but really want HRC gone, done, away, finis, now, sooner rather than later. There is little real GOP love for Obama.

Kids see and hear everything. They are generally pretty good at detecting who seems likable also. I am a little surprised you dont talk to them about who you are voting for and why. They may be young but they arent stupid. I have talked over my political beliefs with my son for years (hes 14).

Steve

We live overseas and were recently given some 'Time' mags from the fall. We have been reading them off and on and one day our 5 year old saw a spread on the presidential candidates. He started listing them off, "Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, McCain, Obama, etc., etc."

"Hey, where's Huckabee?!"

"Well, Ethan, he was not that popular then." This was an issue from October.

We do talk politics a lot, so much in fact that yesterday as we were driving to the grocery store here in Istanbul, he asked, "When are the candidates (yeah, he said candidates) goin' to come here?"

"Ethan, they are not going to come here."

"Why not?!"

"Well, they are not running for the president of Turkey..."

"Oh, man!"

Hopefully, these early introductions to politics can inspire all of our children to participate from an early age.

My daughter (age 15) and I had a long talk about politics tonight, particularly about the Democratic race. She follows politics a bit more closely than most of her classmates---an astute observer for her age, she is---and she seemed to agree with me that an Obama presidency is both a) likely and b) potentially disastrous for the country. She even went so far as to describe Mr. Obama as "superficial" and "inexperienced".

As I said, she's a sharp one, she is.

Your servant,

Lord Karth

I believe that Obama is more than a phenomenon, in much the same way I believe the Beatles were more than a phenomenon, but make no mistake, his candidacy has become a phenomenon. Hillary and McCain, both capable, experienced politicians, typically draw crowds of 1,000 to 2,000 -- Obama routinely draws crowds of ten times that number. I saw him speak in September, in California, and he drew 5,000. He is expected to take in as much as $60 million in donations -- this month. People routinely faint in his crowds. Mild remarks from him at the podium draw all-out screams. His candidacy set a goal of 1,000,000 phone calls for the March 4 primary elections. They've surpassed that goal, and now are going for 1.5 million.

Like it or not, don't take it for granted -- we may not see this again in our lifetimes.

I am so surprized at the Christian community and so-called conservatives that seem to buy into the hype

Because voting for pro-war, pro-torture, pro-death penalty, racially-divisive, economically disasterous pro-life, anti-gay candidates has worked out so well for Christian voters?

Talk about needing mercy.

You got some great kids there Julie and Rod.

BTW you ever notice goodkiditis seems to be genetic?

I'm serious.

If you doubt me go shopping and look at the kids and their parents. Ninety nine times out of a hundred you'll see good kids with good parents, magic.

On topic, the kids know good when they see it. Unlike adults who have to have it explained in a manner that they can comprehend.

Kids pick up on a lot that we don't often realize or imagine. (This is one of the major arguments for homeschooling). I remember being in school, it must have been around second grade, and my school held a mock election before the national presidential election. Ronald Reagan won by a landslide. I also voted for Ronald Reagan, even though my parents never discussed politics. Looking back years later I realized that I never had any idea of who my parents were voting for, because they rarely discussed it. I think I voted for Reagan just because there was a vibe in the air that he was going to win.

Right now Barack Obama has a big vibe associated with him, at least for the Democratic nomination. And between his racial heritage, his "funny" name, and his relative youth, Obama stands out. Our five-year-old is for Obama. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that we really like Obama, and she had a "My Mama's for Obama" t-shirt when he was running for the Senate. (He's also great for teaching impromptu geography lessons-Hawaii, Kenya, Indonesia, and Illinois.)

I tend to dismiss those who dismiss him over the experience thing. First of all he taught Constitutional Law for many years, so we might actually get someone who doesn't pretend that our founding document doesn't matter. Secondly, he has been involved with state politics for over a decade. Third, if you read his second book, you realize that he understands the nuances of the government better than most Americans do and is willing to explain them to you. Fourth, many of our greatest presidents (Washington, Lincoln) didn't have the same level of political experience that is touted as necessary today. I also tend to agree with Kinky Friedman that "Politics is the only field in which the more experience you have, the worse you get."

Oh, but I don't think she has much of a preference between Clinton and Obama. Caught between the feminist dream of a woman president and the youthful vibrancy of Obama's campaign, I'm sure.

It's an opportunity for a teaching moment. Name and face recognition is like seeing Santa Claus in the Thanksgiving Day parade, a chance for the kids to up the gift-buying pressure. One can balance it in a similar fashion: we buy gifts we can afford, gifts the recipient is going to like and find useful. Being made to feel good is not enough basis to make such decisions. This is the moment when a parent teaches the child why celebrities make the best salespersons, and arms them with the skill to resist impulse decisions.

Of course, the age of the children is a determining factor. The older they are, the greater the importance of emphasizing the rational decision process.

I was so excited when Carter won my fourth grade class room in our mock election.

That's funny -- I was the Ford campaign manager in Mrs. Thornhill's class. We won, but not by much.

I'm a granmom so I can't speak to my own progeny's proclivities, but I teach CCD, and the parochial school classroom where I hold forth once a week featured African American History month materials during February - perhaps your kids have had to write an assignment on a famous African American for school? I'm guessing (unless they cheat and ask mom or pop) the TV generation girls pick Oprah, the boys Obama? That would explain 5 year olds being so familiar, no?

P.S. Sad to say none of the kids' work featured canonized African Americans e.g. St Martin de Porres... Venerable Pierre Toussaint ... perhaps since they were born south of the border? Claiming "American" heritage means something more chauvinist these days I suppose...

My girls are old enough to have heard some discussion of the issues, so they have no interest in Obama, having heard me talk about his absolutely radical pro-abortion stance. Interestingly, Hillary Clinton has flown below their radar (one of my girls had the mistaken notion, based on Clinton's campaign signs, that Clinton was a Republican!).

In our house there's not a lot of t.v., but when the girls do watch they always mute the commercials, even the ones on PBS. So I was surprised when my oldest daughter mentioned a Hillary ad that she'd seen: "They showed lots of video clips of her talking to crowds and smiling, but I noticed that when she wasn't in front of a crowd she just looked mean." This, btw, was from the same daughter who thought Hillary was Republican, so you can't blame partisanship for her impression of the images, which she watched without any accompanying sound.

"My girls are old enough to have heard some discussion of the issues, so they have no interest in Obama, having heard me talk about his absolutely radical pro-abortion stance...."

...did you add that he's Muslim too?

Because neither of those things are true. How sad that when women need the Democratic party so much, you are teaching your daughters the wrong thing.

Now we didn't go for the supposed messiah the first time around,so I don't think we'll go for it this time.:)

Seriously, if Obama gets the nomination, this liberal Jewish New York Democrat will be voting for John McCain.

I've been called a racist for saying that. To which I've said "why couldn't you guys have put up Colin Powell in 2000 instead of this one?"

Today Andrew Sullivan reports a (calculated) Republican swing to Clinton: "...Now what shocked me was how many of the group (a majority in fact) are voting for Hillary because they like McCain's chances this fall against her better than against Obama. In fact as I prod more, they to a man admit they'd rather see Obama in the White House than Clinton, but ultimately their allegiance is to McCain, hence the vote for Clinton." http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/gop-sabotage.html#trackback

And for a fresh perspective on Obama, before the runup, here's Marc Andreessen's measure of the man: "...Smart, normal, curious, not radical, and post-Boomer. # If you were asking me to write a capsule description of what I would look for in the next President of the United States, that would be it." But it's the 2 questions Andreessen asks BO about his relative inexperience and foreign affairs creds that are worth the read. http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/03/an-hour-and-a-h.html

Reading some of the comments posted here makes me sad. To the person signed in as "Godisaheretic": you obviously haven't read scripture, for you say "adult supporters of Obama might want to question why it is that he appeals so greatly to those, such as children, who like superficial things..." Remember Jesus said, "Out of the mouth of babes. . ." and though I am not much of a Bible quoter, there other times Jesus spoke of the wisdom of children.

At the small elementary school where I live, I hear from a few teachers that the kids all know who Barack Obama is. After President's Day, at this little rural school, the teacher asked the K-3 kids who the president was. Their first guess was Washington, their second was Lincoln and their third was Obama. I'll leave aside any commentary on why the kids don't know who the present President actually is, but I really DO wonder why the kids all know who Obama is, and seem to love him. I was told they were all smiling and the classroom teachers had to repress their own happy response and inform him that he was NOT the president, but was would LIKE to be president. This is a very conservative rural area I live in. So, what are these kids picking up on?

Since I am not a cynic, I DO believe that the children are responding to authenticity. Sadly, us adults are very suspicious of this. Obama is NOT the messiah, not in the least. I love how he says openly that he is a man who makes mistakes, that he is a "flawed vessel".

But this whole thing reminds me once again of the idea that IF Jesus were to come back, he would be scorned.

And not only am I sad at some of these posts, I am ashamed. Scott R., as a person of Jewish (myself), I am ashamed for you to say "as we didn't go for the messiah the first time around. . .", you are perpetuating negative Jewish stereotypes.

Anyway, I think my kids like Obama because he has a big, genuine smile and comes across as a very nice man. And a name that's fun to say. Easy as that.