Economics Lesson from a Five-Year-Old

I don't believe little Hudson Hinckley actually wrote or drew this little economics presentation, but the kid certainly has star quality:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/yuck-senate-candidate-uses-adorable-5-year-old-to-give-economics-lesson/

How bad is using the child to promote Daddy's Senate campaign in a positive way? Is this worse than having a child ask a leading question, or score a point, off a political opponent?

I think that in comparing the Hinckley campaign ad with the exploitation of a slightly older child to attack Michele Bachmann, discussed here last year, Jonathon Seidl may be asking the wrong question. I wouldn't have had a problem with the mother of little "Elijah" directing the child to say any number of things to Michele Bachmann, along the lines of "What would your policy mean for school children, children who don't live with their fathers, children who own dogs, children who like books/games/TV, etc., etc., like me?" Or, if Elijah's Mom happened to be a politician, "How would you work with my Mom?" Or "How would your plans affect my school?"

My problem with the exploitation of little Elijah was that that child was ordered to tell the world things no normal child wants to think about. I doubt that Hudson Hinckley really wants to think in great length or depth about economics--although he might, if he happened to inherit "the math gene"--but I don't see this cute little flipchart as likely to be traumatic for the kid. At worst, ten years from now he'll be telling friends, and possibly TV agents, "Yeah, my father thought it'd be cute to get me to say those things on video. What did I know?"

I can say this firsthand: When my brother and I were in grades one and five, respectively, while we were waiting with our mother for a music festival to start, a local activist publicly identified us as "little Republicans," asked us leading questions to elicit Republican-friendly responses, and handed us a "President Ford" bumper sticker. We didn't know what a Republican was, and neither of us ever officially became one. We were set up to appear cute and appealing to Republicans.

It didn't do us a bit of harm. The Democrats in the family chortled about it; we were allowed to sit up late to listen to the presidential debates, later that year (we fell asleep); we were persuaded to support President Ford in the mock election at our elementary school because Walter Mondale once proposed to extend the compulsory school age. Ford really swept grades two and six at our school. And if we'd ever become Democrats, which didn't happen either, we would have been able to laugh about this story, just as I am now, as a Registered Independent.

I see the Hinckley campaign video as that sort of experience for little Hudson Hinckley. If he grows up to disagree with Daddy's economic opinions, his having been used to promote them will be a hoot.