Babies for Obama
We couldn't not post this, considering tomorrow is the big day. (And Jessica said it made her ovaries hum.)
Who would want to let these adorable babies down??
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I LOVE THIS. And my two-year-old loves it more. Bwackobama, bwackobama, bwackobama, she cheers! Thanks.
Wow! Honestly, talk about crap. Using children like this is a cheap ploy. Regardless if it was Obama, McCain, Nader, etc...
It's not going to swing my vote towards Obama, I am firmly endorsing Santa Claus for the next president.
Go Rudolph!
I agree with SomePoster. This seems to be incredibly exploitive considering these children cannot even form their own opinion on an issue. It is an issue that relys back to the worshipping of any person; it is unrealistic because at the end of the day all human beings are flawed and will make a major mistake at the end of the day.
So yeah, bad idea to use children to promote a political figure that they know nothing about.Also this community would be FURIOUS if this was a John McCain promotion video, so do not use children at all. It isn't cute or adorable, it's sad that these children are ploys without a basic comprehension, get some teenagers in there, they may not be as 'cute' but at least they may have an understanding of the issue.
I agree with SomePoster. This seems to be incredibly exploitive considering these children cannot even form their own opinion on an issue. It is an issue that relys back to the worshipping of any person; it is unrealistic because at the end of the day all human beings are flawed and will make a major mistake at the end of the day.
So yeah, bad idea to use children to promote a political figure that they know nothing about.Also this community would be FURIOUS if this was a John McCain promotion video, so do not use children at all. It isn't cute or adorable, it's sad that these children are ploys without a basic comprehension, get some teenagers in there, they may not be as 'cute' but at least they may have an understanding of the issue.
Wow Jessica, you are right. My ovaries have a whole chorus goin on after watching that. :-)
Yeah my ovaries are spinning I loved it...how flippin' adorable...
You know you watch CNN too much when your two year-old can identify "dat cwaphead Jah McCain" and "whoohoo Bock Obama" from TV and pictures.
That's dumb. You know if this were a McCain piece with people holding up babies for McCain, you'd all be so critical of the pathetic use of babies who don't even know what the f**k is going on and you would be right. This is as stupid as babies at anti-choice rallies wearing 'I'm glad my mommy didn't kill me' onesies.
Yea... except not really. At all. They're harmlessly echoing what's going on around them. They're not at anti-choice rallies. It' not about a specific belief and they're hardly being any more indoctrinated than kids in a McCain household. The only difference is I wouldn't find it adorable for little kids to be saying McCain bc I don't support him, but I wouldn't be annoyed or offended at it. This is just cute, it's not saying "Look, even BABIES know McCain is the devil!"
Can't we just appreciate how friggin cute it is? It doesn't go any deeper than that.
I agree with you Crumpet. Granted the babies are cute and funny, but something just rubs me the wrong way when you involve children like this.
Granted, I highly doubt that this was anything more than having a bunch of Obama supporters to have these kids repeat his name over and over.
While I am no supporter of McCain, I would say the same if you had a bunch of kids saying Jawn Macain [sic].
The fact that this IS a liberal website, and in the hopes of being objective, would the people commenting have the same fixation on these kids if they were saying McCain, Nader or Barr?
I just thought it was cute, silly fun. I certainly don't take it as a serious, informed endorsement of Obama by the nation's not-quite-ready-for-preschool crowd. These kids, like my own, are simply mirroring what they have heard from their parents. It's cute because the kids are cute and it's great that their parents are excited about voting to the point that their kids have paid attention. And while I can't speak for anyone else, I would think the "Babies for McCain" video would be just as cute because the same principle applies. I would just assume their parents have made a bad call.
I will, however, admit that including children in abortion-related videos or protests (both "I'm pro-choice too" and "Thanks for not aborting me") make me uncomfortable.
I think that since this was in the spirit of fun and ovary-tickling I can overlook the "baby as cheap ploy" thing. It doesn't sway my vote either way; personally I think this video is adorable because "Obama" is just a fun word to say. And when kids say it, it's even more fun, probably because it's harder to say "McCain" when you're three. Like the kid at the dining table. Who doesn't think it's even when he says, "O-bahhh-MAHHH!"?
I am female but do not melt at the sight and sounds of babies so I seldom find them really cute or funny. I just can't help it.
Some people think it's precious and poignant when children sing songs about how homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to marry-- either side of the coin, it's still meaningless and a cheap way to get attention for your cause. Maybe I should dress up my cat to draw attention to environmental issues since, you know, when my cat is used to voice my opinions it is waaay cuter.
And I would disagree with children being used to promote ANY political topic. So I completely agree with you Rainey.
Let them have a damn childhood, children should be playing, socializing, etc.. Let them enjoy themselves without driving politics into it. They have their whole adult lives to form their opinion, let them have their childhood. They only get one.
They're hardly forming an opinion. When i was two i sang the theme song of some mayor's campaign on cue because my parents thought it was adorable. 15 years later, guess what? I have no idea what mayor that even was. I think it's cute that these kids have picked up on their parents excitement about Obama.
emma goldman wrote about this in her essay "the child and its enemy." (please excuse typos, nursing at keyboard)
..."Just so, the Freethought parent can produldy boast this his son of four will recognize the picture of Thomas Paine or Ingersoll, or that he know that the idea of God is stupid. Or the Social Democratic father can point to his little girl of six and say, "who wrote the Capital, dearie?" "Karl Marx, pa!" Or the Anarchistic mother can make it known that her daughter's name is Louise Micheal, Sopia Perovskaya, or that she can recite the revolutionary poems of Herwegh....What are the results of such methods of biasing the mind?.
i would like to add, my 4yo son "isn't sure about Barack Obama or John McCain, so I'm voting for my flashlight keychain." I kid you not, he had that conversation with a woman in the meat department at Kroger last week after we did early voting.
If my son actually voted, he would probably be leaning towards a Dora-"Daygo" ticket.
or the linny/tuck/ming-ming triumvirate.
And the Backyardigans serving various cabinet positions.
In my opinion, most of those clips were spontaneous outbursts that somebody caught on camera. Those clips weren't exploitative.
Some of the clips looked like the children had been coached; those were exploitative.
The really interesting thing I think this shows is how early we begin to socialize our children politically. It's no wonder that most people vote the same way their parents do.
Yeah, I'm not into it at all, for many reasons - the most glaring being that I hardly know anybody who, now that they're growns up, maintain the same political beliefs as their parents. In fact, most of my friends now hold the complete OPPOSITE beliefs as their parents.
All I'm saying is that if I discovered a video of me as a baby googoo-gagaing over Reagan or a picture of me in a romper that said "Thank God Mommy Didn't Abort Me!" I'd go totally apeshit and hate my parents forever. I am very lucky to have parents that a) are progressive and b) respected my autonomy, even at a young age.
I agree with most of the opposing comments above. We'd be indignantly horrified if we saw clips of babies espousing anti-choice, homophobic, sexist, racist, or conservative beliefs. It's just creepy on all levels. Your kid is not a cuter, smaller version of you, and video and photos live forever.
Thank you. I completely agree. For me it takes away a child's right to develop their own opinion on issues and to not feel swayed. Plus it just seems to me that a lot of these children were coached into saying Obama.
Thank you. I completely agree. For me it takes away a child's right to develop their own opinion on issues and to not feel swayed. Plus it just seems to me that a lot of these children were coached into saying Obama.
I think the very important point that you all are missing is how absolutely fun it is to say Barack Obama! It's got all those yummy b and m sounds and you can really explode on that last bah!
I didn't read into this an actual political agenda. As a matter of fact with teenage rebellion being what it is, these kids will all probably grow up and join the young republicans to try to offset their parents liberal mindset.
I disagree with all the people who think it is exploitative and who keep saying we would all freak out if it were babies saying McCain. I don't get upset when I see kids at a McCain rally. I don't like him or agree with him so I do wish I could talk to them, offer a different point of view, but that’s not the same thing. I do get angry when I see people using their kids to protest gay rights, because the kids are never able to say why they are there except that something is bad, and just plain child psychology wise, it shows how much shame you could make a child feel by making anything seem really BAD, be it sexuality, food, clothing, watching TV, etc. When you approach it from a negative side it only creates more negativity.
It is part of parenting to at least try to teach them your values (even if they are values we at this site wouldn't agree with) and they have every right to do so as long as it isn't meant to harm people. I wouldn't want to see an Obama supporter’s baby saying negative things about McCain.
But I think there is a big difference between teaching your kids about something you like, and teaching them from a place of fear. Wouldn’t you say it’s a parent’s responsibility to teach a child between right and wrong? For people who are interested in politics, isn’t the difference what we consider to be right and wrong the cornerstone of our beliefs? I don’t see how you could ask parents to separate that from what they teach their kids. I can’t even imagine how I would date someone who didn’t share my core values, so how do you expect me to raise someone without imparting those values to some degree? Are you planning on never expressing an opinion in front of your child, ever, ever, ever? Cause that is going to be hard.
I have a 3 year old sister. My mom and stepdad are glued to the news these last 2 months because they are so interested in the election. They don't sit her down and try to make her learn about Barack Obama, but she’s 3, and 3 year olds are sponges. She repeats anything they say in general so (shocker!) she has learned to say Obama. This prompted a conversation where my mom asked if she knew what she was saying and then my mom explained it was who she was voting for. (Plus it really is a fun word for kids to say. The vowel/syllable breakdown is fun for their little mouths, she also responds strongly to the logo) My mom did eventually tape her saying it to send it to me, since we live so far from each other, but she had her say something she was already saying.
The fact of the matter is that if these kids are in homes where the families are enthusiastic and are talking about it, the kids are going to want to be involved. Kids might disagree with their parents as they get older, but most, if not all young kids are really eager to be with their parents and involved in what their parents are involved in. Some kids act out badly for this attention, some are well behaved to get it, but the root desire is the same. The real difference come later when the kids are out in the world more when they go to school or visit friends, and whether the parents let them make up their own minds about what they are hearing from other sources. As long as these young kids don’t look sad, I don’t see a problem.
I don't think anybody is saying that family dialogue about politics is a bad thing.
What I, and I assume others, have a problem with is the filming of the babies' repetition of words they've heard and/or learned (having to do with a loaded and divisive topic) and spreading it around the internet. There is a big difference between teaching your kids about politics and involving them in the conversation and using them to parrot your own beliefs to the world in a flippin' YouTube clip.
As I've said before, how amused would you be if you grew up and discovered your parents published a video of you advocating for some woman-hating, gay-bashing, racist conservative as a baby before you even knew what the hell you were saying? Even if you didn't "look sad" when you were saying it then, methinks you'd look pretty sad when you discovered it as a progressive adult.
P.S. I totally hate this new system of rating comments.
I don't think I would be that sad/mad if I was already aware of the fact that my family believed that stuff and I had grown up to think differently. My family videotaped me a lot growing up. There are lots of videos of me doing things that other people would deem odd and that I didnt understand the context of as a child, that I disagree with/don't support now, but I know what they believe and I see where it came from. They did however, as I got older, let me explore and express myself despite what they themselves believed.
But I also think that people putting these things on youtube is just an unfortunate side effect of the fact that people are happy to put all kinds of crap on youtube. Parents tape things they think are cute. This new technology has simplified getting it out there. And quite honestly I wonder where it is going to take us. That to me is teh scariest thing about it. I mean, were you running for president, would a news source try to use that 2 year old repitition against you?
I specifically say "look sad" because though many parents may prompt a child to say something for a camera, you can usually see the difference bewteen when they are being forced to stand there and do it when they dont want to, and when theyre being promted so they actually capture it in one moment. I dont think those are the same thing either. And I don't feel I see that here.
But they aren't "parroting a belief"--they most likely don't even understand the concept of Barack Obama's name. Their parents aren't using them to promote anything. They posted it to YouTube because it was cute how the kids had paid so much attention to the parents to the point where they knew Obama's name (or at least a baby-talk version thereof). The parents became excited that the kids were talking about Obama, so they recorded it, and posted it on YouTube under the idea of "look how CUTE this is!" It's a nice cutesy escape from the the more negative political news.
And for the record, I personally wouldn't care if my parents had done this with me--because at least the parents are paying attention to their kids, enjoying them, involving them, etc. It's a sign of very loving parents. There's nothing hateful or agenda-driven. The kids paid attention to their politically-passionate parents, they learned his name, they enjoyed repeating their parents (not to mention his name is very melodic and probably fun to say for children who're learning to talk), and the parent got so excited they wanted to show the world how amazing and lovable their child is. To me, that's all there is to it. I see absolutely no agenda or drilled-in beliefs. Just a group of very aware children who's parents are paying a lot of attention to this election.
Personally like many others I do not think that this ad was suppose to be taken seriously in the political aspect but just the fact that it was something cute to watch, and something that wasn't so serious.
I do however, would not think using babies for other personal ads like aborition, and gay rights would be a bit uncomfortable. The media and every where you go have been non stop talking about this election because this is one of the biggest elections we might have in our time. So I just feel that something like this sheds a bit of light on people's intense thoughts and feelings on this election.
Man, you guys objecting to this video are seriously over-stretching. The kids -- who are just now beginning to talk -- are obvioulsy just reacting to the sound of Obama's name. It sounds like "mamma." Why wouldn't they be crazy happy saying "Obama" out loud?
Babies and political messages really shouldn't have anything to do with each other in my opinion.
"Barack Obama is fun for babies to say!"
Great! Let the kids say it. Let them say it 'till the cows come home. Once again, nobody on this thread is saying that children talking about Obama, or having fun saying fun sounding words is bad. Nobody is saying parents shouldn't talk to their kids about politics at a young age, or even raise kids with the same political beliefs as them.
You're right - the kids themselves aren't parroting a belief because they don't even understand what they're saying (that's, uh, kind of the point). But the intro to the video is "who would these babies vote for?" The title of this post is "Babies for Obama," and the text contained within states "who would want to let these adorable babies down?" So clearly, this is not a case of "babies just like to say fun words!" or "this doesn't mean anything political!" Filming your kid saying a candidate's name or dancing around an Obama sign and then putting it in a video titled "who would babies vote for," is using your kid to espouse your own political beliefs, plain and simple. Come on, you guys. It's totally fine if you think this is all cute and ethical and have no problem with it. We're all entitled to our opinions about what's appropriate for kids, but at least be honest and call it what it is.
Obviously this isn't a "serious" political video. It's not going to change anybody's mind, and is meant as a cute distraction. But it's also pretty insulting for people to pretend it's just a video of kids saying a fun word and doesn't have any political meaning.
I do think the video is really cute. If I had kids, they'd probably be saying the same shit as the kids in the video - I just wouldn't videotape it and post it on YouTube (but that's just me).
And I still maintain that if it was "babies for McCain!" we'd all be shitting bricks.
I, being one of the few posters who disapproved with this video, am offended that you have implied that we do not care about having families being political.
That is not an issue, families should make the decision to have an opened or closed dialouge on the issue and parents should talk about important issues with their children, if they feel so inclined to do so.
However when discussing this video, no dialouge could have occurred between parent and child; there should not be children in political videos if they are not aware of what the political climate is.
And I agree with the other posters who said that if this was a John McCain video based on the political bias presented on this site people would be furious with those parents for exploiting their children.