Vice Presidential Politics

A few days after the below, Fiona announced apropos of nothing (she was eating yogurt at the time and watching Dora):

"I'm going to be president when I'm older because I'm really smart."

Fiona doesn't lack for self confidence. We nodded and told her she could do that. 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling and all that.

"Barack Obama and John McCain are boys, but some presidents are girls," Fiona declared.

Well, here we were getting into one of those areas. We never give Fiona any of those books assuring her that girls can do anything, because it seems foolish to even plant the idea that some people think there are things that girls can't do. As far as Fiona is concerned, girls can do anything -- there's no question. We broke the news:

"Actually, there's never been a woman president," we said. "But there will be."

"I'm going to be the first because I'm really smart."

A few minutes later she saw a picture of Sarah Palin in the paper and asked who that was.

"That's John McCain's running mate," Andrea told her.

"She's running for president?"

"She's running for vice president. That's the #2 job."

"I want her to be president."

Our knee jerk liberal reflexes activated, though we tried to keep them in check.

"Why?"

"She's pretty." Fiona was getting at the crux of her appeal.

"You shouldn't want somebody to be president just because she's pretty. You should want somebody who's smart."

"That lady's not smart?"

When your kid is born you think to yourself that you're not going to force your ideology on her, that she should grow into her own opinions and you won't tell her what to think. On the other hand, the Couric interviews had been all over the TV, and surely this couldn't be a debatable point except among the lost-to-Hannity crowd. What to do?

"No," we replied. "She's not smart."