Election Day 2012

Just some random thoughts on election day.
‘This is the most important election of our lifetime’. That’s what everyone is saying, and it may be true. I have heard that in every election of my adult life, from the Nixon-Humphrey election in 1968 forward. As I said, it may be true and may have been true during all of those election cycles, for better or worse.
The very first memory I have of a presidential election was in 1952, when I was 5 years old. I remember the adults talking about it, and then electing Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1960 I was 13 years old and remember the Kennedy-Nixon election. I was actually interested in politics at that age. It was an exciting time.
As the years progressed, I realized that no one person or party has all the answers. Every individual has to follow his own lights when voting on important issues.
My granddaughter Mary Celeste is ready for election day, wearing her respectable Republican dress. I’m sure her dad loves it.

It is also important to keep in mind that we are not voting for the president today, we are voting for the people who will elect the president. The concept of the Electoral College is very confusing to a lot of people. My Facebook friend Lance Ward posted this video that offers a good explanation of the reasons for it. The commentator is a Romney supporter, but he leaves the partisan side of it out of this video and offers a really good explanation of why we have an Electoral College. It is worth watching.