Profile of a Political Mastermind

In preparation for our caucus party, I showed John photos of all of the presidential candidates and asked him to select who he wanted for president. I showed him the same pictures and asked him the same question twice. Both times he pointed to Barack Obama. Now we all know what happened. But let's not get ahead of ourselves!

The remainder of the picks had to remain silent until 7:30 p.m. when James & Emily would be on the phone (as well as Sarah Jane's sister, Mary). At the appointed time, everyone publicly announced their vote and who they predicted would win the Iowa Caucus. We made sure there were enough people so that there had to be at least two votes for a candidate to meet the 15% requirement for Democrats in the Iowa Caucus.

The votes were cast, and surprisingly John was the only person who had to vote again: he was the only person to pick Obama. Every other candidate had received two votes, thus making the entire caucus fall into John's hands.

Desperate to declare someone victorious, I ran upstairs with our tallied white board and asked John to pick his second choice for a candidate. He pointed to Biden.

In the state of Iowa, John would have fit right in with his constant campaigning for Obama. So, he did win with his initial choice. However, he was not only able to show the rest of the family his predictive skills for initial presidential campaign outcomes, he was also able to single-handedly determine the outcome of our own caucus, all the while enjoying a video upstairs.

Never underestimate John.