Truman or Obama ...Some Things Just Never Change

To say that my paternal grandparents were rock-ribbed Republicans would be an understatement.

In June of 1950, I was sitting in the parlour of their house – yes, that’s what they called it – watching a Red Sox game on what was then their primitive television set. Suddenly, the game was interrupted and a man appeared on the screen. He said the North Koreans had invaded South Korea and that President Harry Truman was about to address the nation in this hour of crisis.

My grandmother was in the next room – the "sitting room" and, yes, that’s what they called it – reading one of her paperback detective novels. I called to her to come into the parlour and watch the president on TV.

“There is nothing that damn Democrat has to say that interests me,” she snapped.

I thought about my grandmother this morning when I opened the CNN web site and saw that TIME magazine has named Barack Obama “Person of the Year.” Then I noticed the CNN poll, which asked the question …

Do you agree with Time's choice of Barack Obama as Person of the Year?

Well, of course! I mean, who else??

Then I checked the results. Of the 100,000 people voting, 30% don’t agree.

I’m quite sure Grandma Loomis wouldn’t either.