美国民主共和两党的党内初选正如火如荼地进行中。老爸虽不是美国公民，但对政治一向关心－－这大选的结果说不定还影响俺投资的方向呢。所以，和女儿就有了许多的交流。礼拜四在餐桌上就和女儿讨论开了。
“Dad, seems Hillary win more states than Obama, how come Obama has more delegates than Hillary? Hillary won Nevada, but got less delegates. ”女儿问老爸。
“Still remember the 2000 election? Gore won popular vote, but lost the presidency？You have to understand the system. ”老爸回答。
“How does this system work? very confusing.”女儿抱怨。
“See, if there is a selection for a congressman in a district, it is very simple--who win the popular vote in the district, who win the seat. For the president election, The candidate has to win the popular vote in a state to carry the state. According to the population, there is a certain number of election votes for each state. The final result to decide who is the president depends on the election votes--if a candidate get more than half of the election vote, she/he win the presidency. So if a candidate win a state, all election votes in the state belong to the candidate. However, in a popular vote, a candidate could win by big margin, such as 70 percent vs 30 percent, or small margin, 51% vs 49%. Still you just win the state no matter by what margin. So Gore won some states by big margin, but lost in a few states by small margin, such as Florida. That's why he won the popular vote in the country and lost the presidency. ”老爸给女儿详细解释。
“That sounds stupid! Why not just count the popular vote?”女儿的小脑瓜还是转的。
“If so, states with less population would have less say in the election. You see, Gore only needed a few election votes to win the presidency--if he had won his home state, Tennessee, he could have won the presidency. This is a samrt design to give more say in an election for small states. Did you notice the Senate system--each state has 2 senates, no matter how big the state is.”老爸提醒女儿。
“Sounds interesting. So Hillary won some districts in Nevada by big margin and lost in other districts by samll margin? ” 女儿问老爸。
“Yes. Do you know the dirty tricks in the U.S politics system--the re-drawing of the district for congress representatives? There was a big fight in Texas a few years ago. The Republic-controlled state house did a re-drawing. They put a few demacrats-heavy areas together, so the demacrats could win for sure in the district by big margin. However, overall in the state, Demacrats would have less representatives.”老爸引导女儿进一步理解美国的政治系统。
“I got it, I got it!”女儿终于明白了。
“You see, you have to use your brain to think hard. Once you know the logic behind, nothing is hard to understand. Is there something related to your knowledge from your statistics class? You watch these analysts in the CNN--they use all statistics to point out the trend--there are a lot of analysts working in each campaign to decide what strategy for their candidates, too.。。。”
引导孩子把他们从课本上学到的知识运用到实际生活中，是父母该作的功课。这种交流，既有利两代人之间的沟通，也是父母引导孩子思考的好机会。
（１／２７／２００８）
