Yeah. I'll go there; snub me if you want, Miss Manners.  I know politics isn't polite conversation, but there's a whole lot of stuff going on.  Good stuff.  Now I'm not talking about Republican versus Democrat; Offshore Drilling versus Keeping It Green; or even Pearls Girls versus Hockey Moms.  I'm talking about the election process (or spectacle at times) and how it's giving our kids -- my kid included -- a world view of people and expectations that we never had.

I must admit that I've become somewhat of a cable news junkie.  I only know this because I was trying to talk GG into doing something in the midst of the primary season.  She went into one of her long explanations why she couldn't do whatever it was that I had asked her to do, and to cap it all off she said "and I don't want to be a Superdelegate."

But she did ask reasonable questions.  Like exactly what "the lady" (Hillary at that time) and "the man who dresses like a president" (Obama) were doing during one of the debates.  I explained that they were in a contest to see who could get in the BIG contest to be President.  She wanted Hillary to win at first "because she's a girl."  Then later on she said she was going to vote for Mike Huckabee (I think because his last name is kind of funny).  Then she said she was going to vote for Obama.  (For the same reason as Huckabee, I think)  The neat thing is that GG never once said anything about a lady or a brown President being "different."  My daughter's five, and she does notice skin color and gender, but they never came up in this particular context.  HOW COOL IS THAT?

For us "old people" this kind of thinking -- this kind of worldview, I believe, is new for us.  Seriously, I still find myself thinking how incredible it is that women are vying for national leadership positions.  I also think about my parents, and how I wish they were alive to see a black man running for the highest office of the land.  I'm not sure who they'd vote for, but especially for my dad -- a man born in 1922 Alabama, whose uncle was lynched during those dark days -- this entire process would be huge.

But it's not huge or incredible for GG -- or her contemporaries.  This is how they see our world now and how they'll see it in the future.  As far as they're concerned, why wouldn't a lady or a brown man be President?

I just think that's really good stuff; so you'll have to excuse me for bringing up politics this time, Miss Manners.