I was just reading this entry on Heather's blog about political mud-slinging television advertising. She lives in Canada, so I'm sure they don't have all the same laws governing political advertising that we have here in the States. Her blog got me thinking off on a tangent about the different types of ads we have here - those from miscellaneous organizations that may support or oppose a particular candidate (or their position on one issue), and those from the politicians themselves. Of course, we can distinguish the ones from the candidates by the tagline, "I'm [fill in name here], and I approve this message."

After the Olympics in August, my kids had seen enough of these commercials that my son started going around randomly saying, "I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message." Which was funny enough by itself, but then he started getting responses from the rest of us, such as:

Dad: "You're not Barack Obama. I'm Barack Obama."

Sister: "I'm John McCain, and I approve this message."

Son: "I'm John McCain, then!"

Dad: "No, she's John McCain. You're Hillary Clinton."

And then I started giving the children instructions such as, "Pick up all the toys in this room and put them away. I'm your mother, and I approve this message."

Hey, if we can't stop the nonsense on TV, at least we can have some fun with it!