Can Bub vote for the black guy?
My bub is a tough, 94 year old lady. Hardened through the depression, the death of her husband 30 years ago, and a million other life experiences I'll never know about. Stubborn, is an apt description I'm sure all who know her would agree upon. Her children and grandchildren realize, you either play by her rules, or you find someone else to play Rumikub with. Kindly-old-lady she's not...but that's not to say she's not kind.
And while Bub's no racist by any standard of the term, she's had her moments of indiscretion. She's asked me why I can't find a Jewish girl after dating a girl with Chinese parents and then another with a Korean mother. She was more than perturbed when her only granddaughter began dating an Iranian boy in high-school, though she seemed happy enough with her marriage to another goy, a white goy. There were overheard comments about the "dark one" when another grandson dated a girl of Indian background. Her skin color was far more prominent in Bub's eye than her magazine-model good looks. And my mother has told me the story of how she did her darnedest to put an end to the relationship back in the late 50s when my mother briefly dated a black man while still living at home. Apparently gramps had to have a face to face with the young man.
In the primary between Barack and Hillary, Bub was staunchly behind the Clintons. Her thoughts are that it's long past time to elect a woman as leader of this nation. According to her, our country is pathetically backward in this respect, particularly when you look around the world at all the other female leaders, past and present. And she's confidant that a woman wont start these stupid wars. She seemed almost in denial (along with so many others...) near the end there when I started telling her how it was over, that there was no statistically realistic way Hillary could pull out a win.
But Bub's not been happy with the republicans. We've talked about Bush many times over the years, and Bub's adamant about what an "idiot" and a "jerk" this war-mongering president is. But despite what the Obama campaign may say, McCain and Bush are two different beings and McCain looks a lot more like Bub than Obama does. To her, he may even look young. Indeed I already knew the answer, but I thought I'd ask anyway: "So Bub, you gonna vote for a black man this year?"
Though she was a couple thousand miles away, I could still feel the little old-lady spitticles of derision splash against my face when she vehemently answered "Well I'm certainly not going to vote for a republican." Now let's just hope those old Jews in Florida have their hate in the right place as well.