Hi there boys and girls!  I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard from Rainbow Annie, but with all the excitement around the election coming up, I just had to chime in!  First things first… what is an ELECTION?  Well, it’s a time when all the grown-ups in the country are allowed to Choose who they want to be the president of the United States for a whole four years!  Now, they don’t get to just pick anyone.  Nope.  They can’t just write down "Rainbow Annie" and *poof* I’d be the president.  No sirree!  Instead, we go through a very long tryout time called a primary.  A primary is a long, long, long, long, long, long, LOOOOOOONG time where all the people who want to be president stand up and try to tell why they think they would be the best president.  But they usually use a secret code that only they can understand, so it makes the Choice kind of hard.  But all the grown ups go, and they VOTE for the person they think will be the best president until they narrow it down to two people - a red one and a blue one.  And we all know that Annie’s favorite color is BLUE, right!!!  So then, the red one and the blue one pick a partner to be their Vice President, and we get just a couple of months to listen to each of them say why they think they would be the best president… but mostly they (especially the red one) just say a lot of mean things about the other guy instead of talking about anything important. 

Then, finally we get to November… that’s the same month as Thanksgiving!  (Remember to ask Mommy for Tofurky this year!)  The very first Tuesday in November is Election Day.  That day, all the grown ups are allowed to go to make the choice for who they want to be the president.  But you what’s sad?  Not all of them take the chance to go Choose!  Nope.  A lot of them stay home.  Why would they do that?  Make sure to ask all the grown-ups you know if they’re registered to vote.  And if they’re not, well, you just ask ‘em who they’re voting for.  If they say a name that doesn’t have any Bs in it, then let them be.  But if they like the Blue guys with the Bs in their name, you tell ‘em to go vote because they owe it to your future!  (That always gets ‘em!)

Anyway then, after they’re done CHOOSING, everyone sits up really late into the evening, watching TV to find out what everyone else Chose, and (in the case of the last two elections) crying and drinking lots and lots of Uncertain-Tea and Futili-Tea (and lots of special just-for-grown-ups drinks too).

Well, it’s a very important choice this year, and Annie’s going to be back to help you and your mommies and daddies make the right decision!  See you soon!