My three-year-old boy Toby and I were talking about presidential politics in the car this morning, like we do. (While his baby sister Phoebe said, “RaaaUUUuUuurrrrRRrgh.”) We were looking back at the 2012 election, and Toby has drawn some interesting conclusions.
He often asks whether such-and-such a politician “did a good job,” and this time, after asking about Paul Ryan (I said, no, Paul Ryan did not do a good job), he had this to say:
Paul Ryan is a big guy who used to knock Mitt Romney down.
I asked Toby to elaborate on what he meant by this. He said:
Paul Ryan is a big guy who used to gink other people and hit other people with his long arms.
I’m not certain what “gink” means, but I suspect it’s a kind of knocking about.
Anyway, I then asked Toby what he thought of the winning ticket for 2012, and he told me:
Barack Obama is the president but Joe Biden is the big guy and he doesn’t need to hit everybody.
No he doesn’t, Toby. You’re absolutely right.

7 comments
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glodson
January 23, 2013 at 10:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think your little girl had a great summary of many of the points raised by the right. I know that I often thought “RaaaUUUuUuurrrrRRrgh” when I heard some of them speak.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
January 23, 2013 at 11:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh god your kid is so cute. He needs extra hugs!
Also your daughter. Cause cute :3
Lou Doench
January 23, 2013 at 12:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“gink” is the sound effect for swords hitting each other. Or that’s what it was when I was 3. We called our little knights “ginkermen”.
IslandBrewer
January 23, 2013 at 12:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My son desperately wanted Mitt Romney to lose, because, he said, Romney would cancel Dinosaur Train (a PBS Kids show, for you non-parents).
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
January 23, 2013 at 2:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Congratulations! Your son is as politically informed as a significant percentage of the population, and more coherent than a non-zero percentage.
F [nucular nyandrothol]
January 23, 2013 at 8:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Please ask Toby about the Supreme Court.
didgen
January 24, 2013 at 7:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My three year old grandson broke down completely when Obama won, the only reason he would give for this unfathomable behavior was that his five year old brother Bronson had lost. Now considering that Bronson has some weird sexist views, and has never believed in sharing, we have some suspicion that he may be a budding GOPer. He may be right.
We may need to do DNA testing to rule out a changeling.