Did you know McCain adopted a child from an orphanage in Bangladesh?

Did you know Barack Obama's mother used food stamps at one point?

These may seem like little things, and they are certainly not things you hear a lot about, and yet they mean a lot to me. For instance, I used to consider John McCain very racist because I heard him say a slur against Asians once. After learning he adopted a child from an Asian country, that changed my idea of him a lot. I should have put more weight on his having been a prisoner of war instead of just considering him a close-minded man. I'm glad my eyes have been opened more.

I also thought Barack Obama was very elitist, especially in light of his comments against rural Pennsylvanians and other small-town America "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" out of bitterness over lost jobs. I just figured he thought he was so cool because he and his wife had such great educations. However, what I learned about his mother also had an affect on my thinking.

Why don't these sorts of facts come out more? Why do we hear so much about Obama's bowling score or Clinton's make-up instead? Where are journalists when it matters? I guess it might seem more biased to bring these details to light, but the public still deserves to know the truth about the people we may elect to office. These facts can certainly influence the way a person can run a country.

This really makes me think about the way journalists - and even public relations people - report facts. We as citizens don't think to dig up these sorts of details, and it's difficult for many people to do so anyway. I would hate to have voted in the actual election without knowing everything I could, and that's with me reading newspapers and watching the news. I already voted in the primaries without the helpful knowledge I should have had months ago. Who wants to make an uninformed decision?

Maybe these might not seem like the most important details to you, but you never know: they may be more meaningful than you think, and there may be more out there.