momluvsfootball

Let me tell you about my daughter. I've a beautiful, funny, very intelligent daughter. When she was in eighth grade, she did so well on the SATs that she was identified as a SC Junior Scholar. This brought offers from schools like Duke to participate in their summer programs. This also got her an invitation to attend the Governors School for Mathematics and Science. I kept her in a public school. Throughout high school, she was your typical teenager. The only thing that effected her grades was her lack of desire to do her homework. I quit counting how often I had to ride her butt to do her homework. When she took her SATs, she tested in the upper 90% of the country, not bad for a kid who attended a public school. This got her into every college that she applied to, even Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, which is extremely difficult to get accepted in. I have no doubt had she applied to MIT or CMU, she would have been accepted there also. Of course, this also got her brochures and information from every college in the GA, SC, NC area.

She's an extremely inquisitive girl. I tease her about her Lutheran-Wiccan-Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Her plans, once she gets out of college is teetering between being an OB/GYN, and heading to 3d world countries to participate in the Doctor's without Borders, or perhaps work in free clinics here in the US (there goes my retirement fund), or...politics. She's volunteered with Habitats for Humanity, stood at the state capitol during a protest for Dufar, and has volunteered for many social projects while in college. Despite being a freshman in the honors program at college as a dual Biology/Chem major, she made the Deans List both semesters. During her first year, she also had her first poli-sci course, so when I say she teeters, she asked me if a doctor can be a politician too. One time she asked me if it was feasible for a doctor to be in government, I told her yes, just don't make the mistake of diagnosing someone over a television screen.

I'm not saying this to gloat (no doubt I'm very proud of my daughter). I tell you about my daughter to give you an idea about her.

Right before the 2006 election, she turned 18, and she voted for the first time. It wasn't an easy time for her. She had to sit through dinner conversations concerning politics (my husband and I are, to say the least, politically aware). So when it came time to vote, you'd assume she'd have followed our lead. Prior to the election, my husband and I had to keep from telling her who to vote for. She did indepth research on the parties and the candidates and their stances and when it came time to vote, she voted her choices and her conscience, not ours.

The local paper did stories on several high school students who were voting the first time, to include my daughter. The writeup on her described us as an extremely liberal, politically vocal family, which was hilarious in itself. My husband was a hard-core Republican in 2000, an angry Republican in 04 and became an Independent 06. I've always been an Independent and more on the moderate side, who believes there is a way to bring a balance to both sides. Yet the article was about how she chose her party.

I read the articles on the other students, a few of them did some research, they admitted not much though, and others voted the way they did because their parents were that party. I don't fault any of them for why they vote the way they did. We all have our reasons for why we vote the way we do.

During the primaries, I got to see a large student involvement in the political process. A large movement on campus to get students registered to vote, students actively becoming involved in campaigns. Students standing on street corners with signs for Huckbee, Romney, Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Paul (sorry, didn't see any for Guilliani) during the primaries. Even now, young voters are attending rallies, blogging, registering voters, becoming actively involved in the political process, and rightly so. After all, it's their future they're voting on.

As we come up to November and the Presidential and