The Most Important Election Of All Time

We face a choice. A choice that will determine who will lead. We have a duty and responsibility to make our voice heard. This one is for all the marbles. The choice we make today could possibly affect the future for years to come. The choice is between Spotty and Hippo (what did you think I was talking about?).

Turns out that with the country in the grips of election fever the kids have gotten caught up in it too. They've been asking lots of questions about how the voting works and who is running. It is more Quinn at this point that is asking since he can read now and sees all the political signs that litter the roads and people's yards. The kids also listen to NPR news sometimes in the morning as I'm driving them to school, and hear the reports about where the candidates are the occasional soundbite. I can almost believe the charge that the media does indeed favor Obama since from the small bits of news Quinn hears on the subject he has decided he wants Obama to win.

After hearing about the upcoming election both Quinn and Catherine have wanted to "get more involved" and thus have decided there should be an election in our house. The choice is between Spotty and Hippo. Both are webkinz that the kids got a while ago. As they got more into it, we started asking them what each of the candidates stood for and what platform were they running on. Turns out that Spotty is for giving out tents and Hippo believes in playing kickball. Spotty's campaign has taken a few twists and turns since originally everyone was going to get a tent for free, but recently Spotty has had to recant on that promise and said that tents will be available to everyone for five dollars (and maybe ten in some cases).




In addition to the candidates running they've each got a helper (that was about the best Ginger and I could come up with when describing what the Vice President does). Spotty has chosen Disney's Belle as his running mate and Hippo has selected another Hippo.


The best part of all this is the kids are making political signs and placing them throughout the house. In fact several times now signs have appeared on my computer keyboard (I guess the kids know placing something there is the best way to make sure I'll see it). In many of the signs the candidates names get abbreviated to the initial letter. Since the kid's writing can be a bit hard to discern I'll try my best to translate.

1) Vote for Spotty and his helper Belle. We like Spotty. Go!
2) Belle is a helper. Has best pot. *
3a) Go Spotty
3b) Belle is a helper. She cooks!
4) Vote for Spotty and Belle helper.
5a) Go Spotty
5b) Go Hippo
6) Go Hippo. No Spotty. Go Hippo.

* This one doesn't make a lot of sense until you look at sign 3b since cooking requires pots. At least I hope that's the connection. Otherwise...

I will say both kids seem to want Spotty to win. And Quinn apparently has even gotten the kids in his class to get into it. Currently there are six votes for Spotty and two votes for Hippo. If you want, make your vote on the matter heard below.

Who should win?

And one last thing. Last week a bunch of these signs that looked like political signs went up. They all just said "got heat?" much like the "got milk?" ads. But there was no other information on the signs and no web address or anything. So my question is what is that all about? Is it about a measure to prevent utility companies from turning off service during the winter? Is some Republican running on gun ownership? Does anyone know? I have to say the ads were good in the fact that I'm interested in what they were about, but they were terrible in providing me with any actual information.