I just can't manage to be too bummed out about the debate.
I watched it with my 9-year-old daughter, and the view from our couch was great. An unexpected, thoroughly enjoyable night as a parent. I let her stay up to watch the debate because I pretty much just wanted her to see them shake hands. I wanted her to see them disagree (politics is how we solve our disagreements, sweetie), and "talk it out," and I was happy that she got to see them talk to and engage with each other.
Ava noticed a lot of negative ads watching the Olympics, and they intrigued and troubled her. She loved the drama. She also loved seeing me struggle to explain the ads. She knew they were absurd. But then she saw how this debate stuff was real, actually happening, face-to-face, and that the negative ads during the Olympics were "only" advertising, unreal, in other words. (Yes, she knows I work in advertising. A child of Netflix, she is not a huge fan. I, however, am a big fan of the negative ad genre, I respect the dirty craft of them, but, please, she can never know that.) So, I got what I wanted out of the debate, for my daughter to see that in real life, live on TV, they weren't going to yell at each other, or get overly emotional, or have a fistfight. She was actually worried about that, and relieved to see, oh, yeah, this is sort of sane...this is normal. Just two guys talking. But she didn't get bored. Or at least she didn't act like it. She was interested, asking good questions, paying attention. She knows half her (extended) family is going to vote for Mitt, so she wanted to see "what's his deal?" She laughed at Mitt's joke about Obama having to spend his anniversary debating, but then she said, "Listen! The audience is breaking the rules by laughing," including herself in her indictment, but also giving herself permission to like him if she felt like it. Good. That's what I want for her.
Watching the debate with Ava was a complex ride. "Who does the question guy vote for?" "Does Aretha Franklin like Barack Obama?" "How much is a trillion?" "How many people are poor?" "Do we pay taxes?" "How old is that guy?" "Why has there never been a woman president?" I labored to be objective, neutral in my answers. Very tough, but good for me. Cleansing. And I was proud that despite my known bias, she was open and relaxed about it all enough to detach from the drama long enough to laugh at that joke. It was cool. She watched it all with a skeptical, questioning, open mind. She was completely absorbed, and then fell sound asleep on my shoulder, right at the end.
Yeah, I am disappointed by my favorite-president-ever's performance, but this was probably my favorite debate ever anyway. It was a pleasure. It looked a whole lot better watching it with a nine year old.
