Betting on Baby Obama
First post here at LiveBetsDirect? Great – let’s go right to the top of both the bookmaking world and the publicly-perceived Free World: To wit, Paddy Power’s latest “Obama specials.”
Paddy Power was at the forefront of the Obama phenomenon since the New Hampshire primary back in January 2008. Shortly after what the Irish bookie correctly sussed as a Prhyic victory by Hillary Clinton, Paddy Power paid out on Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for the presidential election. And with more than three weeks to go until the general election, Paddy Power paid on Obama becoming the 44th US President.
So what’s the prescient paddy got for us on Obama now? How about some “First Baby Specials”? Paddy is offering three prop bets on a three child for Mr. and Mrs. President. Despite the bookmaker’s famed cheekiness, Paddy Power’s actually approaching this one slightly more respectfully.
(Over in other prop bets, Paddy Power announces that footballer “Robbie Keane has finally hit the back of the net with his stunning wife Claudine.” So how would that go for the Prez? How about “Obama has finally ramrodded one through [sexual] congress…” Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.)
The first “First Baby” bet “applies to the first baby President Obama and Michelle Obama have during his first term as US President,” and all “Bets are void if they do not have a baby.”
The table looks like the following:
Michelle to give birth in White House: 4/6
Michelle to have twins: 20/1
Michelle to have triplets: 100/1
Michelle to have quints: 500/1
Michelle to have octuplets: 1000/1
First Baby to ultimately become US President (talk about your long-term props): 33/1
The best news here is that void clause, it seems, as there isn’t a lot of historical precedent for the President producing offspring whilst engaged in what is, let’s face it, probably a pretty demanding job.
The Happy Clevelands
In fact, only Grover Cleveland – the trivia lover’s favorite president – became a father while President; he did so twice (so to speak). The only first baby to be born in the White House was Esther Cleveland in 1893, while Marion Cleveland was born in Massachusetts in 1895. (Six other presidentially-related births have occurred at 1600 Pennsylvania.) The Clevelands were virtual baby machines for some time there, with four babies born in eight years bumpering Cleveland’s second term as President. The Obamas have thus far not been nearly this (re)productive.
And Mrs. Cleveland certainly had one biological advantage: Frances Cornelia Folsom Cleveland was just 29 when Esther, her second child to her husband, was born; some 27 years the president’s junior (what a dog ol’ Cleveland was, eh?), Frances actually married Cleveland during his first term in office. Michelle Obama is 45, which would seem to put her in a bit of a hole here, even factoring in medical advances and such.
The 20/1 odds on twins are a bit high, too, as census bureau statistics show the odds against a woman delivering twins was 30/1. Odds on triplets and higher-order births start at about 617/1. Plus, neither Obama appears to have a history of multiple births in the family, and thus little genetic predisposition to such.
Tomorrow: If the Obamas have a baby, what will they name him/her?
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