I was on the phone the other day with my aunt after Palin was announced as McCain's running mate and she expressed how excited and interested my cousin is with this election. He won't be able to vote this time around, but he's starting to realize the changes that can come about in America with this election.
Or can the changes take place?
In a discussion today the line Obama and his groupies have been using came up, "Who wants more of the same? We've had Bush for the past 8 years. It's time for new blood." My mother, a Republican who may or may not always vote Republican, said, "Well then we better hope that we get new blood in Congress, because it's not only Bush that created this mess."
And she's partly right. We have a system of check and balances. No office has complete control. If the President wants to pass a bill, he needs to have support of Congress. If Congress wants to pass a bill, they need support of the President. They can vote against his proposals, and he can veto theirs.
The other thing topic that got brought up was if there ever was a President and Vice President in office that were NOT of the same party. Yes, there was. In the original set up the person who received the second highest vote became Vice-President. This became a problem when Federalist John Adams won the Presidency and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson became Vice-President. Imagine their conflicts over foreign affairs and state rights. Can you imagine what it would be like if we had the same set up in today's election? We could have an Obama/McCain or McCain/Obama or McCain/Clinton or Clinton/Obama or Donald Duck/Mickey Mouse election.
I would vote for Donald. :-)
I bring this up because the rest of the discussion was over what is the Vice-President's Role other than to be on the card and then to take the President's place if anything should happen to him. I found it interesting that the only thing that they could say was "to go deer hunting and hope not to shoot a friend" and some other off handed remarks.
So right now I'm trying to write lesson plans and I decided I'd focus on government. It's obvious that we can all use a refresher on the election process, the responsibilities of each branch, and the responsibilities of the President and the Vice President.
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2 comments:
To be fair you should put Minnie on the ticket.
I can't think that we need to support the party that has denied that global warming is a real problem, or who condones mountain top mining, or who has disassembled the EPA. That's just the tip of my iceberg so I'll stop now before I start ranting. :) The good thing is that it doesn't matter who you think will be a better leader. We will still be friends. We've just had a bitter election for superintendent here. My guy won. But I fear that some permanent damage has been done for the people here. It makes it hard to do business. Maybe a little time will help - hopefully. We've got too much to do to let politics get in the way.
Hey M! I just haven't decided. There are a few things I like on one, a lot on the other. I'm really an independent. I vote for the person and their platforms and plans. So while my mother might be Republican - don't promise my vote there. I'm keeping an open mind until the last speech. I just love the lessons that come out during Presidential Elections.
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