Harold Ford Jr Versus Bob Corker

I admit it, I haven't been voting in non-presidential elections for several years. And definitely since we moved to Tennessee three years, it seemed like it would take so much effort to learn new political alliances and so on. But this year I just had to vote, and I voted in the primaries, too, no less.

It all started on July 4th, when my family went to watch fireworks. A young lady was handing out fliers about Bob Corker, a Republican running for the Senate. Ho-hum, right? Except my four year old daughter was fascinated by the name Bob Corker, and by the fact that he had to ask people to give him a job, which is how we explained the concept of voting to her.
From then on, she taught herself to read by finding Bob Corker signs. Right before the primary elections, every intersection was covered with at least a dozen competing signs, advertising this candidate or that. She could pick a Bob Corker sign out at 35 miles an hour, and announced it every single time.

The fascination with Bob Corker continued. When her grandfather caught a 25 pound catfish and asked her to name it, it only took a second for her to answer "Bob Corker." When our doctor's office had a naming contest for their new beta fish, she voted for……you guessed it, Bob Corker. Eventually, my daughter began saying "I'm Bob Corker and I approve this message" while laughing maniacally.

So, yes, I had to vote, and I took my four year old with me and let her see that I was voting for Bob Corker. To my shame, I hardly knew who else was running at that time, and figured it couldn't hurt to vote for Bob Corker. After all, he was once mayor of Chattanooga, and people seemed to like him. I had a little twinge, though. I split my votes between Republican and Democrat sometimes, but I like to think that I lean a little more to the Democratic side. George W. Bush's arrogance and lies, the messy morass of a war in Iraq, and the recent pedophilic Mark Foley have only served to solidify that leaning.

Once Bob Corker and the Senate race in Tennessee was on my radar, I had to start noticing Harold Ford, Jr. He seems a nice, upstanding man himself. He is younger, he's a Democrat, and seems to embody a more modern Tennessee. Of course, by watching Bob Corker's television ads, we learn that he partied with Playboy models, wants to allow immigrants into our country, and approves of gay marriage. But then we learn from watching the Democrat ad campaign that Bob Corker hired illegal immigrants, endangered people's lives while mayor of Chattanooga, and so on.

So, the decision of who to vote for comes down to my four year old child. Marketers have long known that if you target the kids, the parents fall in line. McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Nick Jr., Disney, and allegedly even Camel cigarettes target children with their advertising, and successfully, too.

How long will it be, do you think, before politicians realize the untapped potential in our children? They could put on mini-cartoon ads with cartoon characters of themselves. The most entertaining character, or the most colorful, or the most appealing to a preschooler would likely get more votes.

And that's why I have to vote for Bob Corker instead of Harold Ford, Jr. in the Senate race in Tennessee.