Barack Obama and John McCain are done debating. Tim and Marcus Penny are not.

The Penny debates are expected to continue daily through Nov. 4, possibly beyond. They started sooner, too, with the precursor coming in winter 2006, just weeks after the mid-term election had ended.

“I remember over the Christmas holiday, my brother got mad at me because I was already trying to spark the presidential debate between myself and my dad,” said Marcus Penny, a 23-year-old Minnesota State University student.

Tim Penny is a 56-year-old former Democratic congressman and Independence Party candidate for governor who is supporting a Republican for president in 2008.

“Both of us can get a little intense when we’re talking politics,” he said.

While he is proud of his son’s serious interest in the election, Penny thinks his son has erred in choosing Obama — just as he thinks his other two sons, his daughter and his elderly mother are wrongly backing the Democrat.

Outnumbered five-to-one among immediate family members, Tim Penny hasn’t suffered any doubts.

“No, not about McCain,” Tim Penny said. “I’ve known him for 25 years. We went to Congress together. I admire him. I trust him. I think he has the capacity to be the kind of president we need in today’s world.”

All of Penny’s children have their political opinions, but Marcus Penny is the only one who’s developed their father’s deep interest in government. It hasn’t always been that way. He originally planned to major in music only to find himself increasingly intrigued by politics, particularly following the 2004 presidential election.

After virtually no direct involvement in campaigns most of his life, he’s now a political science major. He was freshman Congressman Tim Walz’s first intern in 2007. Despite his better judgment, he couldn’t help but share with MSU Republicans an idea that struck him: that they should call themselves “Mavericks for McCain” to play off of the school’s mascot.

And he’s taken full advantage of having an experienced and opinionated consultant — his father — who is more than willing to encourage and nurture his interest.

A public division
The Pennys aren’t a typical family, considering Tim Penny’s 12 years in Congress, his books on American government and his popularity in southern Minnesota. But the generational quarrel about this presidential race is far from unusual.

Polling shows young voters overwhelmingly prefer Obama; McCain has substantially better luck with their parents’ generation.

The Pennys’ disagreement, however, is a bit more public than most.

When Tim Penny went to Denver during the Democratic National Convention to tell the media why he supported the Republican, Marcus Penny fired off an e-mail to The Free Press: “Read your story about Tim Penny’s endorsement of John McCain. Too bad the DFL didn’t send you my way when they declined to comment. I would have had a thing or two to say. — Tim’s son, Marcus.”