Bob Schieffer on the pleasures of voting

(CBS News) Some of you who watched the debate may remember that I closed the evening with words from my mother who said, "Go vote; it makes you feel big and strong."

She was the driving force in my life, and she really believed that. To her it was a qualifier: if you don't vote, you have no right to criticize whatever happens after the election.

She was not bashful about exercising that right. I feel the same way, but I take it a step beyond that - I LIKE to vote, because it is so much fun.

And here's a confession: Sometimes voting AGAINST someone I DON'T like is more fun than voting FOR someone I DO like.

And here's the best thing of all: You can vote for or against someone for the best of reasons, the wrong reasons, or no reason at all. It is your vote, and you can do with it as you choose. In fact, you can waste it if you like!

You can tell everyone, or no one. My wife instructed me not to tell her who I vote for. She's afraid I might disappoint her. So I've never told ANYONE how I voted.

Until now. In this new spirit of full disclosure I want to confess that I once voted for Walter Cronkite. But I'm not saying when.