Don't let those idiots hornswaggle you

My mom called me the other night and told me she had to come clean: she voted for McCain. In the end, she said, she couldn't bring herself to vote against the "pro-life" candidate. She voted in the Democratic primary--for Obama--and (unbeknownst to me) fretted about her final decision right up to election day. So much so, she said, that in the voting booth, she actually started voting for Obama, and then remembered at the last second that she'd decided to vote for McCain. I had no idea that I had been talking to a swing voter on the phone all these months. Obviously, I could have done better.

So when you were wondering all this time who that last undecided voter was? And if they enjoyed platters of shit with broken glass in them? That was my mom. And, well . . . no comment, I guess.

The whole time she was talking my dad was on the other phone, hollering, "The Republicans will never overturn Roe v. Wade! They'd lose their base! Don't let those idiots hornswaggle you!" And I might have jumped in with a few Palin-related comments. It's possible. But then we both let her off the hook. She's a nice person, and she doesn't live in a swing state. Also, it takes guts to come clean to a liberal nut like me. And apparently, my dad.

Still, if the election had been conducted just among my family, Obama would have won 3-1. That's right: my Sigma Nu, Republican, hunting-and-fishing, tax attorney brother--who once complained over Christmas dinner that the government might take some of our parents' money when they die and that therefore he wouldn't get his rightful share of it (all)--voted for Obama.

Why? Sarah Palin. You betcha! There is hope for him yet.