We voted for Hillary

That's right. Count our votes. We voted for Hillary. It felt freakin' good.

Last night I had this amazing conversation with my two sons, ages 13 and 11, about the primary. They'd both spent time reviewing the candidates' viewpoints on key issues in their middle-school history classes. They came home eager to talk about the real possibility that McCain was going to be the Republican nominee. (I don't think I'll ever forget this conversation we had in our little kitchen. It was so full and exciting, despite the fact that we discussed real and serious things while we took care of pet needs, cooked dinner, and they took turns answering their phones.) Needless to say, I had a moment. It was one of those rare and rich moments as a parent. You want to stop time and do a little dance. I felt lucky. And proud. But they are their own people. They are kind, funny, smart, feminist young men who are anxious to vote and are excited about the political process and how this election is going to go. They are ready to de-Bush our country. Peter, who has a louder voice than Andrew, was practically yelling with enthusiasm about Super Tuesday.

As it turned out, the timing was perfect for our spontaneous chat. I had read a few things over the previous days suggesting that those who were considering voting for Hillary should reconsider and vote for Obama instead because he had a better chance against McCain. This was troubling me. I had been wrestling with how I felt about the philosophical difference between voting my heart vs. what I would describe as voting based on the idea that strategy should outweigh heart in these times, that voting Obama was more strategic, that being strategic was typically a more Republican campaign tool, and thus something to aspire to in trying to outsmart them. (Does that even make sense? Did you follow?) So I discussed all of this with the boys. To my surprise I was not met with blank stares. (I do tend to go on about things. Can you tell? And they get blank looks often. But they didn't.) They completely disagreed.

"Hillary SHOULD be our president, mom. She's awesome."

So I stopped wrestling. I voted my heart. And my head. And my whole self. I believe in Hillary. And it took two young men who aren't able to vote yet to remind me that voting the heart is important.

Happy Super Tuesday to you.

K.