ERICKSON: Costume Shopping

This is a more random column than normal. First, since I have been saying this for a few years, I do not think turning 40 has anything to do with it, but have you noticed that more and more Halloween costumes for girls turn them into prostitutes, or I guess prostitots?

Seriously, we went out shopping for my 10 year old, who wanted to be Black Widow from the Marvel series. There was a really little girl outfit that was OK, but for tweens and adults, it would be hard to tell the difference between the Black Widow costume and a hooker in downtown Atlanta. I hope your daughter does not want to be a nurse for Halloween. That costume comes with a video camera and a contract for an adult film company.

It is a sad indictment on how sexualized our culture treats our children. Television shows are no better. We have largely banned even the Disney channel at our home where the values taught are more about shopping and vanity than anything else. I have friends getting married soon who are already fretting over whether they even want to have kids, given the direction of society these days. I tell them to have a lot of kids, but then also buy a lot of shotguns and move to the middle of nowhere with no television. Raise the kids like they are in a little house on a prairie.

One bright ray of hope about the future was at Mercer University this week. I went to speak to freshmen in the journalism program. First, I have to say every time I go to Mercer now it is more and more impressive. When I went there, we did not have a Mercer Village. Heck, we did not have half of what is there now. Fraternity row was essentially a group of single room shacks on a hill. The dining options were Subway or the cafeteria.

Now there are lofts and Mexican restaurants and pizza and even a bar and coffee shop. The journalism facility, where The Telegraph also resides, is top notch. The students in the classroom were deeply engaging. We spent two hours on both local topics and national elections. It is great to be in that environment. James Carville keeps telling me I need to teach a class on elections and politics like he does at Tulane. I may have to lobby for that. It was fun to hang out on a college campus with a group of students who give you hope for a sane tomorrow.

Speaking of campaigns and elections, I have been digging into the polling these days. It is interesting to me that the polls that rely on likely voters have a much closer race than the others. The other polls will shift soon and the dynamics will change. A great example is the CNN/ORC poll.

That poll is actually a very good one. It has Donald Trump up five percentage points. But delve into the polling and it turns out that a poll of over 1,000 adults only asked 298 registered voters who identify as Republican about the Republican primary. That is important because registered voters are not necessarily actual voters. The most accurate polling would use Republicans who have actually voted in a previous primary.

Polls that look at those voters see a much tighter race. As I told the class at Mercer, I think the media's fixation on polling misses a larger picture. The race is early and things will change.

Erick Erickson is a Fox News contributor and radio talk show host in Atlanta.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 10:45 PM with the headline "ERICKSON: Costume Shopping ."