Out of the mouths of babes...

"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth."
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,


And is Rowling smart, or what?

The Hunterdon County Democrat newspaper runs a feature each and every week called “The Kids Page”. Most often they pose fairly innocuous questions to kids of middle school age and younger.

Such questions as “When there's tons of good food around, can you stop yourself from eating?” or “Describe a present you wanted NOTHING to do with. Why?”. Or the always popular “You'll never believe what my pet did!”.

Their answers appear with their name, grade and school. Parents and grandparents love that stuff.

Last week, however, the question asked was one that really surprised me, especially for the Democrat: “What do you think? Is President Bush doing a good job?”

Here’s what the youth of the very Republican Hunterdon County had to say about the president:

“No! The President lied to us when he said that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. He then sent troops looking got them and they didn’t find any! Thousands of troops have lost their lives in Iraq. President Bush needs to needs to pull the troops out."

JG, High Bridge Middle School, Grade 6

“President Bush is doing a bad job…we’re in a war that is killing a lot of people. Some people think the war is good because of what happened on Sept. 11. But it’s gone on for too long! In our weekly reader, I read that Bush is going to send many troops home by Christmas but I don’t think he’ll send as many as he said he would."

EL, Franklin Twp School, Grade 5.

“President Bush is doing a bad job. Why can’t he get everybody out of Iraq immediately? He needs to listen to other people! He needs to stop yapping and saying he going to everything and just do it immediately!”

CG, Three Bridges School, Grade 3

Like they say, "out of the mouth of babes"… Or something like that.