It's All About the Hair

I've discussed a few Republican candidates in previous posts - Hunter, Gilmore, Guiliani, Romney - so now it's time to take a first impression look at a Dem. This time, however, I wanted to engage Marra in the process. I wanted to get the 11 year old perspective in a generic way, and I wanted to evaluate her depth of understanding of some of the issues. I needed to temper my own expectations with some realism of the fact that she is only 11. I sometimes get carried away...

The candidate selection this time was easy. Marra wanted to look more at John Edwards. As you may recall, she scored him an astonishing 10 smiley faces (and no frowny faces) for his responses during the CNN/You Tube debate last week. So her curiosity was piqued. I started her at his official website, pointed her to the link for "Issues", and I left the room. I'm trying not to hover, while I'm busting out of my skin waiting for her to slowly become engaged in all this political nonsense. Only 9 more weeks to go before the trip!

"Can I watch this video, Daddy?" she shouted from the office. "Sure", I called back. It's the candidate's website, and Edwards has small children at home. I'm not worried about content.

"Daddy, what's all this about hair?"

Great. She was watching his You Tube-style video, poking fun at his own hair and the national obsession with the price and quality of his haircuts. High level policy stuff. I explained "Hair-gate" to her as simply as possible. I made a mental note that in New Hampshire, half my time will be spent explaining the ridiculous personality dramas and minor campaign turf battles that are inflated to drive interest in cable TV programming. Not sure yet what the other half of my time will be spent doing, but we'll save that for another posting.

Marra read his introductory statement about what he wants for America - his vision statement, as it were. Her comment - "I understand all the words, but I don't know what he's saying."

I read the statement myself, and I silently agreed with her. It struck me as very much like Edwards. He was trying to make me FEEL his passion. He wants to win my vote with an emotional appeal. The guy must have been a great trial lawyer. He certainly knows the buttons to push to connect with the "folks".

"That's rhetoric, Marra." Tough concept to impart on a pre-teen. My attempt: "It's a lot of meaningful words strung together to make you think he is saying something meaningful. And it works, a lot of the time." That hurt to admit.

She liked his position on education, advocating smaller schools. I didn't break the news to her that every candidate advocates smaller schools and classroom size, and that most education decisions are made locally, not nationally. I needed to encourage her gently, not make any sudden movements and scare her away from the process. I can be patient...for now.

For me so far, Edwards is still the class warfare candidate, the one who likes to pit Rich vs. Poor, Big vs. Small. I am not sure how dividing the nation in this manner makes him the candidate best suited to bring us together. As I have said, however, I will remain objective (as long as possible).

So Marra has begun looking at candidate positions on their websites. We will crawl first, then we will walk. Like I said, we still have 9 weeks to go.

JS