Yet another phone call from yet another computer bank representing yet another candidate reminding me to caucus today came over our answering machine last week. This prompted our six year old, Ellen to ask who was calling.
“Oh, just another person who wants to be President,” I answered nonchalantly as only those of us who live in Iowa and New Hampshire can.
To which she gasped- “You mean, President Bush is been FIRED?!”
“Uh, no…” (I WISH! But I wasn’t about to go into the intricacies of impeachment with a six year old) “In our country you only get to be President for four years at a time and next year we elect a new one,” I explained instead.
“Then what are they going to do on ‘Cory in the House’ on Disney? Who’s gonna be Sophia’s daddy?” she worried.
The light bulb went on over my head. “Oh, no, honey- that’s not President Bush, that’s not the real president. That’s just a pretend character on a TV show. His name isn’t even President Bush, what is his name anyway?”
“PWesident MaWtinez,” her older sister Grace piped in (Grace has a bit of a speech impWediment- hope she doesn’t read this. I didn’t mean to make fun of you honey, you know I love you). Grace is very smart and she loves reading and Social Studies. She went on to explain that “There have been TWO Pwesident Bushes, first President Bush’s FATHER, and now the other President Bush’s SON!” She like to remind Ellen who’s the oldest by emphasizing how much more she knows. But sometimes she doesn’t know as much as she thinks, “There have been THWEE President Bushes.”
“Uh, no honey, just the two,” I tried to gently correct her, “although President Bush’s brother Jeb was governor of Florida.”
She capitulated on this point, but then decided to make sure we knew that the President has three daughters and that we have to call them all “America’s Angels.” This is another feature of the Disney Channel’s sit-com about Cory, a boy from California who moves to DC to live with his dad who’s hired as the White House chef while his mother returns to law school and his sister, Raven Simone, whom you might remember from the old “Cosby Show,” attends college in Europe. It’s a spin off of her show. President Martinez is a widower with a precocious, spoiled daughter nicknamed “America’s Angel.”
Before kids, we watched lots of different things on TV.
I explained that President Bush only has two daughters, twins named Jenna and Barbara who were young adults but that they’re not exactly angels, but I didn’t see the point in explaining why.
I did explain that I before and after lunch with some former students that day I had listened to two different presidential candidates speak in Denison. One was Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico. They thought that was cool, we had driven through New Mexico last summer on our way to visit their grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin in Arizona.
Then I explained that the other candidate I saw was Senator Clinton, that her husband had been president between the Bushes (Grace had never heard of him) and that if elected, she would be our first woman president.
“Then I want HER to be president because girls rule and boys drool!” declared Ellen with gusto. That’s when my wife explained how just because it would be nice to have a woman president someday, we want to vote for someone who would make the best president, not vote for her just because she’s a woman… and that Senator Clinton may not necessarily the best person to be president. (all the Republicans out there are probably saying “Amen.)
Then I pointed out to Ellen that when her Great-Grandma Laura was her age, women weren’t even allowed to vote, let alone run for president. Although I don’t think that’s quite right, maybe within a margin of error of about a decade.
At this point, Annamarie, our two year old announced “Daddy, I want to be PWesident!” with a very determined look on her face. By the way, she doesn’t have a speech impediment, she’s just two.
“Well, okay, Annamarie,” I told her, “You’ve got MY vote.”
I understand that after Barack Obama told someone that he hadn’t always wanted to be president, the Clinton campaign went to work and discovered that he had written in kindergarten that he’d like to be president someday- no doubt hoping to paint him as somehow less than honest. I hope my daughter’s opponents don’t try to do the same kind of thing with this column someday.
Good luck honey. You may or may not be the first woman president, but I know you’ll be the best.
