Kids on Politics

KIDS ON POLITICS

Every year, teacher Mike Wilson of Ballwin, Mo., has his elementary students study the presidential election process in America. From the resulting essays and exam papers, Wilson has culled some gems of youthful insight and wisdom, not to mention skepticism worthy of a politics-weary adult.

• Calling a person a runner-up is the polite way of saying you lost.
• What I learned about elections is that we aren't really getting to elect the president. It is some people in a college who get to. I have not decided what to do about it yet, but I am not going to just sit around.
• It is possible to get the majority of electoral votes without getting the majority of popular votes. Anyone who can ever understand how this works gets to be president.
• The more I think about trying to run for president the less I think of it.
• The president has the power to appoint and disappoint the members of his cabinet.
• In January, the president makes his Inaugural Address after he has been sworn at.
• Once he is elected, sometimes the president has to work 24 hours a day until he finds out what he is supposed to do.
• The nominees are usually called candidates, or campaigners, although I have heard them called other things.
• Popular votes tell who is the most popular. Electoral votes tell who is the most elected.
• The jobs of delegates is to resent their states.
• When the radio mentions a landslide, cross your fingers and hope it is talking about an election.
• A dark horse is a candidate that the delegates don't know enough about to dislike yet.
• A split ticket is when you don't like any of them on the ticket so you tear it up.
• When they talk about the most promising presidential candidate, they mean the one who can think of the most things to promise.
• Elephants and donkeys never fought until politics came along.
• Political strategy is when you don't let people know you have run out of ideas and keep shouting anyway.
• A candidate should always renounce his words carefully.
• We are learning how to make our election results known quicker and quicker. It is our campaigns we are having trouble getting any shorter.
• One of the main rules of campaigning is you are not allowed to go on a whistle-stop tour without a train.
• Politician is the bawling out name for a candidate you don't like.