One never really knows what a little kid absorbs of the adults' world going on around them. So much of it is over their heads, not just figuratively but literally. But Robert was really into the whole election process, especially last night.
There was a map around the house with the number of electoral votes for each state, which was a great teaching tool both for math and geography. When I asked this 6-year-old if he would rather win Texas or Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, he did the math without a problem.
He was distraught when South Carolina was called for John McCain early in the night and Vermont for Barack Obama, putting Obama in an 8-3 hole in the electoral college count. Later things started looking brighter, and when he was in bed he asked Cate to check, saying, "I bet he's at a hundred now!"
Indeed, Obama had 102 electoral votes by CNN's count.
Cate asked Robert what he thought would happen if Obama was elected, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "the war would end." He also thought Obama would take better care of poor people and sick people.
Here's hoping.
5 comments:
I was Robert's age in 1984. You may remember (probably not) that Scholastic Kids or whatever it was called does an "election" in presidential years.
Well, our 1st grade class was about to vote and the teacher asked if anyone wanted to say anything first. I got up and said that I thought we should vote for Mondale, because he was for the little guy and Reagan was for the rich and for businesses.
Ronald Reagan swept every class in the school... except for my 1st grade class.
Which I guess was the eventual outcome writ small. Oh well.
The first election I remember was 1952, when I was six. I thought my folks would support Eisenhower because he had been a soldier. [Dad was in gteh Air Force.] But when I started to tell them that it was good the Ike was ahead in the vote counting, they told me they were for Stevenson. I recall that it was hard for me to give up the notion of liking Ike, so I just kept my opinion to myself for four years when it safe to cross the aisle. Never went back.
I don't remember much of the 88 election, except Da and I watching the states change "colors" on the 5" TV in the den. Ok it was shades of Grey and they weren't very different from each other! Blue and Red are fairly similar in black and white.
And from 92, the only thing that really sticks out was Sam Erickson (after hearing we were in St Louis that summer and saw a Cardinals game) said to me: "Busch? I hate Bush!"
By den I guess I mean the fireplace part of the living room... it was the closest we had to a "den" in 88.
Robert's disappointed that Sen. Obama has been President Elect for a whole week and there's still a war. Poor optimistic Robert.
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