The kids really ARE alright

Published Oct 23 2008, 04:25 PM by Caitlin E. Curran

Nickelodeon - and, more importantly, Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, who made me think that Clinton guy seemed pretty cool when I was 10 years old (okay, it was also party because of his MTV appearance) - has ended it's annual "Kids Pick the President" mock election. According to their website: "Over 2 million votes were cast by kids like YOU and Barack Obama is the winner of the 2008 Kids Pick the President Election!" Well, hey! That sentence is blatantly lacking a comma, but whatevs - these kids LOVE Obama!

I headed over to the Nickelodeon message boards to find out why. Here's what the Nick kids had to say:

tornado164: u c,mccain votes for bush 90% of the time! & he votes for girls to not have the same rights as boys! & that would not be good! GO BARACK OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JKROFL: I think McCain is a very nice man and should be repected. But are we even ready for him? I mean he aims to higher taxes , and if hes elected gas prices will go up up up $$$$.Plus , not only is he not that great , weve got his vice pres Sen. Palin to worry about! I mean half the time she doesnt even seem like she knows whats going on and if McCain somehow may pass away in the next few years we will have her for president!
Vote Obama for change. He aims to cut taxes for the middle class and bring back our economy.

It's much better when you read the actual boards, of course, every comment is punctuated by some type of blinking, colorful, animated gif-face. Of course, there are some naysayers on the boards, like 88426:

"obama said he will lower gas prices in 10 years and he will only be in office for 4 years but if he gets elected again he only has 4 more years. 4+4=8. do the math, he's a lier! OBAMA STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So, is this any indication of anything? I'd say a lot of what the kids on the Nick site have to say is probably strongly influenced by parents or other adults who figure prominently in their lives. (This is not meant to disparage kids - I think it's great that there's a place online where kids can go learn and weigh in about this stuff, and clearly they're taking advantage of that.) Hopefully, though, these two million kid votes reflect two million potential adult votes - or more.