"Pinky-Swear You'll Vote for the Guy on YouTube!"

I was sitting at the doctor’s office today watching a emFox News /emsegment on why young voters are pulling for Obama. The commentary was almost like a parody from an Onion post, “Don’t know who to vote for? Just ask your 14-year-old.” Apparently, parents like a href=”http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/popup?id=4223457″Caroline Kennedy /aare supporting Obama because her children made her promise to. Wow, was there a pinky-swear involved in there somewhere, too? br /br /The middle-aged woman sitting next to me looked rather disturbed that the commentator and others were bragging in the segment about voting for Obama because their “14-year-old told them to.” “I wonder how many of those kids have been out in the world, brought home a paycheck and seen what programs like what Obama and others endorse would cost them?” she stated. The veteran next to her looked equally incredulous and said, “Yeah, I can tell you how national healthcare would go over. I just went to the Veteran’s clinic the other day with an emergency, they told me they could see me in three months. If that’s universal healthcare, count me out!” Another patient in the waiting room said, “I wonder how many of the youth votes Obama will get because of that a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU”You Tube video/a?” br /br /I can perhaps (okay, not really) understand 18 year olds turning out to vote for the guy they saw on a YouTube video, but there is no excuse for parents who vote for a candidate because their kids want them to do so. Because popularity and charisma is no way to pick the next President of the United States. Much less being told how to vote by your kids. Parents are supposed to be the adults, remember?br /br /strongUpdate:/strong At five years old, a href=”http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2008/02/06/a_true_story/”SayUncle persuaded his parents /ato vote for Jimmy Carter:br /br /blockquoteI decided, based on what I was being taught about presidential races at school, that my parents should vote for Jimmy Carter. My reasoning was simple enough: he had some shiny white teeth……To this day, my dad blames me. /blockquotebr /br /Dad has no one to blame but himself–don’t listen to your kids– especially if they go to public schools.