Future politician?

I'm wondering if Gage is going to have a future in politics? For the past several months, campaign signs have been popping up in yards all over town. Gage immediately became interested in the whole process, wondering why the signs were in the yards, what they were running for etc, etc. Several weeks ago he noticed a "Mark Zimmerman for Park Board" sign in our Cubmaster's yard, who lives only a block and a half away, and commented on that. (Gage idolizes our cubmaster!) We told Gage what we knew about Mark Zimmerman; that he is big into Scouts and he is a very nice man. Gage instantly wanted to know how he could get a Mark Zimmerman sign in our yard. I told him he could get a sign if he donated money to Mark's campaign. I'm sure if he had had money at the time, he would have wanted to give it to him. Back in May, after we did the tree planting for Scouts, we had to stop by our cubmaster's house for something and Gage asked him where he got his Mark Zimmerman sign. Scott (the cubmaster) said, "From Mark Zimmerman of course!" Gage mentioned that he sure wished he had one, and Scott just happened to have an extra sign in his garage (he already had two out in his yard) and asked Gage if he wanted it. You should have seen the smile on Gage's face! We went home and our Scott was waiting on the front steps for us and Gage couldn't get out of the car fast enough to show Dad his new "prize"! He put it out in the yard with pride. A few weeks ago Gage told me he had a dream (no, he's not the next MLK) and in his dream he had a Paul Govig sign (running for school board I think?) and a Mark Zimmerman sign in his yard. I had to laugh at that. He's been so enthralled by it all that he was starting to dream about it!! He has even asked friends of ours who they were planning to vote for for Park Board, and mentioned that Mark Zimmerman would be a great choice! Yesterday morning my neighbor Dave gave me a call from work and asked if we still had our sign out in the yard, and I told him we did. Since yesterday was the actual election day, we were supposed to have the sign taken down (thanks for the reminder Dave!). I went outside to remove it from the yard and when Gage came home from Camp Edventure, he noticed right away that the sign was missing. I told him it was the rules that the signs had to be removed from the yard on election day. I noticed when I picked Gage up, that there were signs on the school doors telling people to "VOTE HERE". When I saw the sign I felt compelled to go in and vote, but I didn't have my ID with me and ended up blowing it off. Last night when I watched the news I had a very bad feeling when I noticed that Mark Zimmerman was 3rd in the polls (and wasn't trailing by much), but only the first 2 would win. He ended up losing the race by less than 20 votes and I feel horrible about not getting out there to vote. Scott forgot about it as well. I guess our 2 votes wouldn't have made the difference, but maybe if we had voted and encouraged a few others to get out and vote for Mark Zimmerman, he might have won. He has been president on the Park Board for a couple of years now and I feel really bad that his term has ended. I'm not sure, but I think the biggest reason he didn't prevail was because of some big issue about building a new aquatic center (which I believe he was for) in Bismarck. I gave Gage the bad news tonight and he was genuinely upset that Mark Zimmerman did not win his race. He asked, "Who won? Shawn Weeks?" (He knows each position that each person was running for, if there was a sign out and he saw it!) He said he wished he had been old enough to vote. I wish I had not blown my opportunity to vote off.

Soon we'll start seeing signs for the presidential election popping up all over the place and I already know there will be many discussions to come. After Scott went to Grand Forks to see Obama and Hillary talk, Gage has been quite interested in that whole ordeal. Both Gage and Emma are happy that Obama has been named the democratic party nominee. (I was kind of wanting to see the first woman president myself!) Anyway, don't be surprised if Gage asks you who you are going to vote for!