# My mom: Political genius **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 5, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269 "2004-11-05T21:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/1 "2004-11-05T21:44:18Z")
This is an election thread, but without the partisanship. Or ranting. It’s about my mom. And please, since I’m making this non-partisan, let’s keep it that way. My mom is a sweet, grey-haired, grandmotherly woman. She also has been completely, _completely_ oblivious to current events for most of her life. For the longest time she didn’t have a remote clue. I remember one time she, my dad and me were with a group of people and they were talking about the president at the time (I think it was Reagan.) They mentioned George Bush, the Vice President. My mom piped up with, “Who’s George Bush?” I could almost _see_ my dad sinking deeper into my chair. He was pretty astute about political issues, and here his wife didn’t even know who the Vice President was! Fast forward many years. My dad has passed away. I don’t know what has transformed in my mom, but she’s now really keeping up on political issues. During the 2000 election, she kept a _chart_ of all the states, how many electoral votes they had, and what the polls were saying about each of them. She was really keeping tabs on the status of things. She talked about Florida more than a few times, but I was sort of tuning her out. The night of the 2000 election, they called it for Geo. W. Bush. I was watching the news with my mom. She looked at her scary charts and graphs and said, “No, something isn’t right. Something’s going on with Florida.” I was saying, “Look. Bush won! They said it on the news.” She frowned and said, “Oh, I don’t know…something is going on.” Of course the rest is history. Well, this time I was going to pay attention to mom. She still had her scary graphs and charts. I tried to get her to start a blog, because, well, everyone else was doing it. But she’s not terribly computer savvy. I tried to listen to any pearls of wisdom she had, but again, I missed it. For a while before the election, she was talking about people voting their “morals.” Yeah yeah, mom, I thought. She kept on repeating that, and I just missed the significance of it. :smack: What do I need to do next time, to exploit this? She’s obviously onto _something_, and I seem to keep missing it! Oh, and I keep telling her: my dad would be so proud. Shocked, but proud. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/2 "2004-11-05T21:47:53Z")
Uh, that should be: “I could almost see my dad sinking deeper into **his** chair.” It would have been pretty crowded if he’d been in my chair! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/3 "2004-11-05T22:01:37Z")
It’s neat to have cool parents. Maybe she could run the next democratic presidential race. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/4 "2004-11-05T23:00:58Z")
Thanks. Yes, she is neat (so was my dad)! There must be a way to channel her innate political savvy, I’m tellin’ ya! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/5 "2004-11-06T09:40:00Z")
She sounds super, **yosemite** , you two must have a good time together. I vote for her to report on the election for some network in 2008. Then while all the pundits :rolleyes: are forecasting the results incorrectly **yosemitemom** can just casually get out her charts… 😃 yeah, that’d work! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/6 "2004-11-09T11:07:56Z")
When Reagan was elected in '80, my mom predicted that he would serve two terms. 'Course, she had a 50/50 chance of being right. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/7 "2004-11-09T11:43:55Z")
> [@yosemite](#): > > What do I need to do next time, to exploit this? She’s obviously onto _something_, and I seem to keep missing it! If you want to make money, you’ll have to wait, but you can get odds on just about _anything_ [here](http://www.sportsinteraction.com/sportsbook/index.cfm). Just scroll through the drop down menu in the upper left of the screen. I’ve been going through them for years and it’s a solid company. BTW, let us know what races she’s calling in '06. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/8 "2004-11-09T11:45:49Z")
For some reason I keep picturing these charts made al la Marthe Stewart style complete with construction paper, glue, yarn and dry macaroni. Cool Mom… ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/9 "2004-11-09T12:31:45Z")
Skip the blog, your mom needs to go on any political show as a pundit. Especially with Jon Stewart. She could be like Letterman’s Mom at the Olympics. Yay for moms! ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mom-political-genius/273269/10 "2004-11-09T12:36:11Z")
> [@smartini](#): > > I vote for her to report on the election for some network in 2008. Then while all the pundits :rolleyes: are forecasting the results incorrectly **yosemitemom** can just casually get out her charts… > 😃 yeah, that’d work! Now that I’d watch. While **yosemitemom** is at it she could also lecture us on making sure we always leave the house in clean underwear and eat all our veggies. We could name the show “Listen To Your Mother!”