Two of the young guys at work didn't know who Joe Biden is.

[wildeyed]

Biden was visiting last week for fundraising events and his motorcade snarled up traffic ferociously. We were complaining about it and it came to light that two college educated and reasonably intelligent 20-somethings in the office didn't know who he is. Is this a normal thing? How do you not know this? I could see not knowing the Secretary of State or your Senators, but not knowing the Vice Prez? Wow.

[CanonRay]

1. Low information voters

who probably vote for the guy with the last commercial they see...or they don't bother to vote at all.

[GoCubsGo]

14. I'm going with the latter.

They most likely don't vote.

[edhopper]

2. But probably knew

who phil phillips is.

[wildeyed]

6. But I didn't!

I had to google

[lunatica]

3. They probably also believe "both sides do it"

Did you find out who they'll vote for? Or even if they'll vote?

[wildeyed]

5. Issue by issue, the are on the left side of the spectrum.

But clearly no party affiliation. One has never voted to my knowledge. The other is new to the area, so not sure what his voting past is. Not sure if they plan to vote in November. As the boss, I strongly "encourage" voting with my staff. I give them registration forms and they get a long lunch to take advantage of the early voting site just down the street. But I can't make them vote. Or get even a tiny bit educated about politics.

I got home and drilled my elementary age kids on elected officials and branches of government.

[lunatica]

15. Thanks for the effort to educate your employees

I always talk about politics at work. Not a lot, but when something comes up that they're interested in and it's something that is directly related to politics I will talk about it. My intent is to get them to understand that politics affects all our lives every day.

[Plucketeer]

4. My wife teaches civics

to high school seniors, so this is no big surprize.

[wildeyed]

7. Is it the parents?

Something about how we educate them? These are recent college grads. Both working and planning to get married soon. It bogles that my nine year old knows more about civics than these two

[FrodosPet]

9. Many liberally oriented people I know don't care about politics

One person in particular starts getting pissy and tries steering the conversation away if politics or current events are involved. If someone turns on the news, she will either change the station, or whine until someone else does.

[wildeyed]

16. I know someone like that.

She leans liberal now, but comes from a hard right political family. Because she is so conflicted, it is easier for her to ignore political discourse altogether and deride those of us who discuss it regularly. She got smacked hard for her reticence during the NC Amendment One debate recently. We are both straight, but hang out with a group of lesbians regularly and from what I could tell, they made it abundantly clear that it was NOT ok for her not to support them and their families vocally during the debate.

[Fumesucker]

11. I was watching a Dubya primary event in 2000...

Dubya said, talking about liberals, "They think Social Security is a federal program"..

The audience cheered wildly..

Now these were people who were interested enough in politics to come out to a primary speech..

And you expect people who don't care about politics to have a clue?

[Plucketeer]

12. It IS the parents for the most part

Since the parents do not instill a sense of responsibility in their offspring - responsibility for their success in school - school is just a social function for them. That and the fact that there's NO consequences for the kid's lack of actions - no consequences for the students, no recognized consequences for the parents.

[WI_DEM]

8. there are a lot of people who can't even name one supreme court justice

the lack of interest in this country sometimes appalls me.

[FSogol]

10. I bet they can name all the Kardashians.

[JonLP24]

13. I imagine it's extremely rare

I don't know a single person who doesn't know he is and I know a lot of people who don't follow politics. Then again I never asked every single person but I never heard a person ask, "Who is Joe Biden?" after the 2008 election.