Voting Values - If you haven't already mailed in your ballot or voted early, be sure to visit your local polling place today. And, if somehow you're still undecided, use tradional family values as your guide, and vote Democrat. That's right, Democrats raised Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton while Republicans raised W., Jenna and Barbara.

These days, though, it's Democrats who come across as no-nonsense parental taskmasters, certainly compared to their Republican opponents. By now, the Bush dynasty is famous for its failure to impose a tight-leash parenting policy. However you judge the particular youthful exploits of either W. or his twins, they don't add up to an advertisement for the character education and abstinence-training that conservative child-rearing experts like Dobson have trumpeted in 'the battle for the hearts and minds of our kids' (the subtitle of his and Gary Bauer's 1990 manifesto, Children at Risk).

But being a good kid isn't the same as being cool, so no wonder the Bush twins are set "loose in their designer clothes to gab about MTV and The O.C. They're plainly being deployed to promote the notion that being a young Republican isn't dorky." So, if you support families and traditional values and raising responsible, thoughtful generations of children, vote Kerry.