"I believe that children are the future..."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:40pm

"...Teach them well, and let them lead the way..."

=====

Kids Pick Kerry to Be the Next President

Wed Oct 20,11:35 AM ET AP

NEW YORK - Kid power! Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) is the winner, and the rest of the country should pay attention because the vote on Nickelodeon's Web site has correctly chosen the president of the United States in the past four elections.

Nearly 400,000 children and teens voted, and the results were released Wednesday. Kerry received 57 percent of the vote; President Bush (news - web sites) got 43 percent.

Nickelodeon has been airing information on the Nov. 2 election, plus sponsoring debates where kids could put forth their views on the environment, the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and terrorism. Some animated shows on the cable channel also have been focusing on the election.

Linda Ellerbee, who writes and hosts "Nick News," says their voting usually reflects their parents' views — but not all the time.

"Every so often you get a kid that says, `My parents are voting for X, but I'm voting for Y,'" she said. "It's amazing, the point when kids start forming their own ideas about issues."

Ellerbee said Nickelodeon has been traveling the country teaching about the election and the importance of being socially informed. Seven-year-old Anthony Viggiano of Baldwin, N.Y., won a contest for the best song lyrics about freedom of speech and performed it with rocker John Mellencamp (news).

"If we can get kids interested earlier in voting, when they can legally vote, they will," she said. "They will run for office, they will be the candidates (that) people want to vote for."

Ellerbee, who will announce the results on "U-PICK Live" Wednesday night, said many children wonder why they can't vote in the real election.

"Kids aren't dumb, they're just younger and shorter," she said. "In fact, last election, a boy came up to me and said, `We picked George Bush (news - web sites) to win, and he didn't really win. Al Gore (news - web sites) won the popular vote, so we were kinda wrong.' Quite an observation."
Kids Pick Kerry to Be the Next President

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:41pm

one more reason for the voting age to be raised to 30.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:41pm

whaddaya know, kids are bright than adults seem to be.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:52pm

Children that voted on the Scholastic website (you know those kids that read instead of watching tv) chose Bush over Kerry. And they've only been wrong twice.

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 02:52 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:01pm

"Give them a sense of pride, to make it easier
Let the children's laughter
Remind us how it used to be."

Electoral Vote Predictor 10/20/04: Kerry 291 Bush 247

[Plum]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:56pm

Right. I know when I was a kid, I always visited the Scholastic website.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 4:10pm

now plumsy, to be fair they have been at this since 1940 through their scholastic magazine which is distrubuted to schools k-8 and the online portion of the polling was just added in 2000. i remember being crestfallen when my contemporaries chose carter over ford back in 1st grade, but realized even then that he was being punished for nixon's crimes.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041020/nyw076_1.html

and god bless 'em the li'l buggers voted for nixon in '60.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/20/04 at 4:18pm

Younger kids usually just go with their parents' opinions. So the poll is mostly a reflection of the opinions of the parents of children who happen to go on the Scholastic website (or get the magazine, whatever) and take the poll. Talk about your twisted samples.