Although politics is something that never excited me before, I am pretty
             excited about voting this year. It will be a little bit different for me.
             You see, my family has voted Democratic for as long as I can remember. It
             has always been assumed that the right vote in any election was always for
             the Democrat--regardless of who was running. That is just the way it is
             and the best I can come to explaining it is because my parents have always
             voted that way and their parents always voted that way and so on. No one
             really even knows how far that tradition goes back and even worse, it seems
             that no one really cares. None of that really bothered--me until September
             11, 2001. After that, I began to see things in a different light.
             Fear, anger, and patriotism were just a few of the emotions I
             experienced after the attacks. From all of that came an incredible respect
             for President Bush. I remember the first speech he gave after the attacks
             and I remember feeling proud for the first time. I'm not completely sure
             what I was proud of--being an American or proud of the president, but the
             speech made me feel good in a strange way. I made it a point to listen to
             every address he gave and I paid attention to what he said. After a few
             months, I realized that I admired many things about George Bush.
             For instance, I found his addresses to the nation immediately following
             the attacks to be were personal and also very inspiring. I never
             considered freedom to be such a prized possession until President Bush
             pointed out that America was targeted because we enjoyed freedom. I was
             also impressed at how he was able to generate a spirit of patriotism every
             time he spoke. I also felt that no matter what he was speaking about, he
             My father in particular always made fun of the president's inability to
             speak eloquently--and still does, but despite his occasional stammering
             ...