Grandpa likes Obama???

I had dinner with my paternal grandparents last night, which is always an adventure. Grandpa is one of those perfectly stereotypical grumpy old men, but last night, he managed to shock me with the completely unexpected: he wants Obama to be the Democratic nominee so he can vote for him in November.

Ok, cool. Wait, What???

I am not sure how to process this. There are a few things in life I have come to count on and Grandpa being stubbornly, blindly Republican has always been one of them.

This is a man who, in the 60's, wouldn't let his 21 year-old daughter have the car to go see Kennedy speak at the University because "I didn't vote for him, what more do you need to know about him?"

His subversive, rebellious daughter-in-law (a.k.a my mother) quickly offered Aunt Carolyn a ride to the event, much to his dismay.

This is the man, who, upon finding out I was working for the Democratic Party during the 2000 election called, honestly confused about why I would accept such a job when, as he explained so simply "well, I am a Republican, you know."

It's come to be a fact of life, much like the sun rises in the east, grandpa is a Republican.

So, imagine my shock and disbelief when he admitted he would have liked to go hear Obama speak when he was in town last month, but at his age (nearly 90) and on his 3rd new knee, he couldn't manage waiting in line for several hours to get in.

I thought he might be making a joke, but he went on to discuss how he would vote for him in November.

Just add it to the list of things going on in this election year that I never expected to see in my lifetime.