President Elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

[Vanquisher]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!



After 2000 and 2004 and the resulting president, I couldn't have handled another 4 years on an even remotely adjacent path. I am very happy today.

[Sheherezade]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

DD came home from school sad and told me that she overheard a child at school saying that Obama would probably kill his puppy.

For the first time this election cycle, I just snapped. I told her that was a stupid thing for the kid to say. Untrue. And ugly. Thus far, I have preached mutual respect for differing opinions. Puppy killing? Egad.

Sometimes, I hate, hate, hate were we live.

[GrayMatterWife]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

DD came home from school sad and told me that she overheard a child at school saying that Obama would probably kill his puppy.

How on earth would he do that? We can't even kill OSama, and we've got the entire armed forces looking for him. I don't think we have any Navy SeALs to spare...

[GrayMatterWife]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

Oh, gads. Clearly. I mean OSAMA. Sorry. I have been typing "Obama" so often.

[Sheherezade]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

I know what you meant. I think......crazy Republican lady!

More reports from the schoolyard political front: DS says his friends told him that Obama is not the president because he wasn't born in the U.S. and he will be thrown out. *sigh* I told him that was old news, Obama has a birth certificate from Hawaii and that Senator McCain was born in Panama so if you are concerned about your leaders being born on foreign soil....

Seriously, why do they talk about this stuff in the classroom? It's totally contentious. The school elections here were near 50% - 50% with McCain taking it. Still, 50-50 means a lot of heartfelt passionate fights. :huh:

I thought living in a swing area would be good for my kids - and I still think it will be - but the lessons of mutual respect are hard for all of us to learn. If there is ever an act of violence in the schools predicated on politics, I'll never forgive myself.

[GrayMatterWife]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

I know what you meant. I think......crazy Republican lady! .

Oh, good grief, no. I wouldn't wish harm to anyone, whether I agreed with his politics or not. It's just politics, for heaven's sakes. Besides, I like Obama WAY MORE than I like Biden!! [/quote]

More reports from the schoolyard political front: DS says his friends told him that Obama is not the president because he wasn't born in the U.S. and he will be thrown out. *sigh* I told him that was old news, Obama has a birth certificate from Hawaii and that Senator McCain was born in Panama so if you are concerned about your leaders being born on foreign soil....

Seriously, why do they talk about this stuff in the classroom? It's totally contentious. The school elections here were near 50% - 50% with McCain taking it. Still, 50-50 means a lot of heartfelt passionate fights. :huh:

I thought living in a swing area would be good for my kids - and I still think it will be - but the lessons of mutual respect are hard for all of us to learn. If there is ever an act of violence in the schools predicated on politics, I'll never forgive myself.

I'm sorry your kiddos have had to deal with this. I understand. My son (and he's in PRESCHOOL!!) is getting it from the other side. The kids tell each other that only "bad people" vote for McCain. Sam asked me if he was bad, because I was bad.

I told him that, when it comes to behavior and voting, there's no "good" or "bad"--only tacky.

[Sheherezade]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

I have no problem with people with differing opinions. I think that's a strength in our system. I wish all parents would teach their kids to be respectful...and that the kids would follow through. That's probably the hardest part. I told my kids the night of the election that there would be no gloating. No "we won!" at school. I tried to explain that people get very invested and emotional about these things. Obviously, conversations occurred anyway. Tonight I introduced the concept of not discussing politics at all. Don't feed the fire, just let it drop entirely. I hope that takes. It's hard when it is part of the curriculum. We just had our 5th straight night of election homework.....results this time. Let it end now....please?

My kids are older (9 and 12) so the discussions end up being more involved. They do understand policy ideas and that we don't know what's right and wrong - we just do our best when voting.

Once again...I wish they'd keep it out of the classroom. I need to write to the superintendent about this.

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

I asked DD and she they didn't talk about the election at school today. That is fine by me. I heard that a first grade parent asked at back to school night what the teacher had planned around the election. She said she didn't they didn't do anything specific and that she already knew how all the parents were voting based on what kids talked about. :huh: I don't see a lot of value to it in elementary school but maybe I'm missing something (math applications of tallying and graphing votes could be taught with other examples and the electoral college is hard enough to explain as it is). We've been saying a lot of the same -- that people get emotional and invested in elections.

[Rapunzel]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

Teachers injecting their own political beliefs into their classrooms is wrong. I remember all (no exaggeration) of my teachers doing it growing up - and I'm sure it's the same today. It's a wonder I'm not ultra-liberal after my teachers got through with me, actually!

[Rapunzel]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

And I'm sure Obama supporters would have been so happy if McCain won.

Yeah, I would have been unhappy, but I couldn't imagine barely speaking to my co-workers or friends because of the way an election turned out.

Which election was it where there were loud protests from avowed liberals that they would all move to Canada if the Republican was elected president? :P If disownment isn't an indication of dislike for one's own neighbors and fellow citizens I don't know what is.

Let's not pretend that one side in politics is any more well-behaved than the other.

[rainbabies]

Re: President elect O'BAMA!!!!!!!!

On behalf of Europe and probably most of the rest of the world; thank you.

curious as to why this is so important to you and "the rest of the world"

i certainly don't watch the news and wonder who the next leader of ireland, canada, france, australia, england, etc...is going to be.

[rainbabies]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

i was also wondering...obama's makeup?? who made him look SO orange yesterday?? during his press conference? holy cripes. anyone else notice? was it the lighting?

[poky]

Re: President elect O'BAMA!!!!!!!!

curious as to why this is so important to you and "the rest of the world"

i certainly don't watch the news and wonder who the next leader of ireland, canada, france, australia, england, etc...is going to be.

Not to speak for McPants, but my impression is that this is because like it or not, this country, and therefore its leader, has a disproportionate amount of influence and power on the world stage. Combine that with a cultural attitude of liking to throw our weight around, and lack of interest in what goes on in the rest of the world, and it can be a scary combination for the rest of the planet. You don't care about the next leader of any of those countries because it's not likely that anything any of those leaders does will change the world you live in day-to-day. Other countries can't say that about us. I can see a day coming, possibly, when this is not the case, when we're not the biggest bully on the block any more, and other countries won't HAVE to care about us, because we won't be able to affect them deeply any more, and we'll have to care about someone else, because they can.

Do you think if, say, France's economy had tanked, it would have taken us with it? Probably not. Are we taking the rest of the world with us? At least somewhat, yes. That's why they care.

[McPants]

Re: President elect O'BAMA!!!!!!!!

curious as to why this is so important to you and "the rest of the world"

i certainly don't watch the news and wonder who the next leader of ireland, canada, france, australia, england, etc...is going to be.

What Sandy said.

The U.S. is arguably the world's only current superpower, so it's definitely in our interest to stay informed of who's going to be the leader of the country. Some countries are deathly afraid of being the next to be invaded by U.S. troops, other countries are more worried about how the presidency will affect international trade. Very few countries are indifferent to the election however. It tends to matter to everyone in some way.

I should probably add that the reason why I thanked you is because there's an overwhelming majority in the rest of the world supporting Obama's presidency.

If you'd have read just one foreign newspaper in the last 2-3 months, you'd have seen extensive coverage of the U.S. election. Most even have websites dedicated to the election. See the UK newspaper the Guardian (which is the one I prefer to read) for instance:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/uselections2008

[rainbabies]

Re: President elect OBAMA!!!!!!!!

thanks for explaining