Hello first grader, who would you vote for?

In honor of election day, I asked the kids in before care who they would vote for today.

"Barack Obama!" said the first grade girl with possibly the best answer I got all morning.  But of course, in demonstration of my complete ignorance of how primaries work, I thought you couldn't vote for him today.  I assumed only the Republican party was having primaries (I assumed Obama wasn't running against anyone, and therefore got the nomination by default... apparently it doesn't quite work that way.  Uh, fail.)  Anyway, making her give up the only answer that actually worked, I asked her who else she'd vote for:

"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."  That's a pretty good second.

A kindergarten boy said that he would vote for his Mom, his Dad, his Grandma, and his friend.  Talk about your oligarchy.

When another first grade boy showed up, I asked him who he would vote for.

"I'm not old enough to vote," he replied.

"How old do you have to be to vote?"

"13.  Or 16."

"Ok, well if you were old enough to vote, who would you vote for?"

"My brother."

"What would make him a good president?"

"Well, he likes to play jokes."

"So," said the girl, "we could call him the Joke President?"

"Well," he continued, "sometimes he's really serious.  He would be like a gorilla and a monkey!  And if people were speeding, he would arrest them.  But not if they were important.  Like, if they had a business meeting to go to and they were late and they were going to get fired, they wouldn't get arrested."

Later, a third grade boy showed up, and I asked him who he would vote for, he said he'd vote for his Mom.  So I asked why she'd be a good president:

"Cause when she says something, she's serious, you have to do it.  Also, I think she'd be really good for the economy, because if someone needed a home-"

"Like the hobos who don't have a place to live?" the first grade boy nodded.

"Yeah, if they were homeless she'd give them stuff, like shoes or food."

So there you have it, voters!  Some good advice for you.  Don't trust the adult who doesn't understand how primaries work, trust the kids who'd vote for their moms.