I'm thankful that this election  is nearly over.  I actually look forward to the nasty political ads being replaced by beer and car commercials.  At least the car companies have evolved to a place that when they lie to us, it's not completely transparent.  But I digress.

Elections are an interesting time to observe and think about human behavior and our decision making process.  I've kept my own observation limited this year because, frankly, I get depressed if I look at it too closely.  One person said to me the other day that she was fearful that if Obama was elected, the terrorists would come after us.  I asked her to share with me how she arrived at that conclusion and she didn't really have a good answer.  I suspect it's something she saw on a McCain commercial. 

Then, the other night, my son and his friend were talking about the election because they had gotten the opportunity to vote in a staged election at their school.  My son's friend was saying that his friends were calling him a racist because he voted for McCain.  My son, despite the fact that he voted for Obama, was incensed by the idea.  Turns out, this young man voted for McCain because of his education policies.  It's too bad that the most enlightened political discourse going on in our communities is with our children but they aren't allowed to vote. 

The list of intersting and depressing election related observations goes on.  The few conclusions on the surface for me are these.  First, when our children are casting more informed votes than we are as adults, we are being lousy citizens.  There's no reason not to be informed in this world of the intranet and information overload.  Second, people make decisions emotionally and with no regard to what's rational.  It's a nice notion that we think we are rational beings, but it's simply not true.  Let's hope our emotions lead us to a new leader who will right the ship in the next four years. 

-Jason