My Mother is delusional. And I know she's not the only one that thinks this way.

[lady raven]

I haven't discussed it with her this year, but I know her record. My mom likely will vote for McCain this year because he's a vet. The ONLY issue my mom cares about right now is the military because my brother's a Marine (who, last time I knew, was voting Democrat. He voted Clinton 96 and Gore in 2000). She is actually going to vote against her own self interest, my interest, my children's interest and, frankly, that of my brother and his family because McCain's a vet.

She voted for Bush twice because she thought he'd be the one to take care of our Military folks.

Seriously.

[Duke Newcombe]

1. To further hasten her demise...

Ask her why she didn't vote for Kerry? He was a vet!

:)

Duke

[lady raven]

4. true, but

She was already drooling all over W from the first term.

[CalGator]

9. Technically Gore served as well.

He wasn't on the front lines like Kerry but he was in Vietnam, unlike President AWOL.

[IDsweetpea]

18. Veit Nam Vets Against McCain

I belong to a womens board and last night we got into McCain v Obama big time. They are just like your mom. I told them to check out the Viet Nam Vet web site. Now these are the same people that swift boated Kerry and they say McC is much, much worse. They are attacking me and Obama like rabid dogs over the link to Col. Hopper video speaking against McC.. If you haven't seen it..

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_hopper_video.htm

They are also calling my candidate, Obama, dangerous because of his association with William Ayres and the fact they sent a donation to an organization against Palestine. The old we will be putting a terrorist in the white house rhetoric. Can one of you help me with this argument? It is making my head explode.

[Thrill]

2. You had better show her

how the vet groups grade McCain. You may also want to remind her he was against the new GI Bill

[lady raven]

5. I definitely will

Does anyone have a really good link I can send her?

[blondeatlast]

16. VoteVets.org; make sure she sees the ad I link below:

http://www.votevets.org/index_html

Anti-McCain ad: http://www.votevets.org/video?id=0012

[lady raven]

23. Thanks for the link

I will discreetly place it and some info about it in my signature next time I send her an email ;-)

[lady raven]

26. That is an excellent ad. Thank you. n/t

[Lorien]

3. Educate her. Obama is getting far more military support than McCain

and I'm sure people here have links to prove that. My mom voted for Bush because he was a good "christian", but after I spent a few years sending her articles she voted for Kucinich in the primaries!

[lady raven]

8. That is a pleasant surprise

I have heard, through my SIL, how the Military people are being brainwashed. At least the wives are. She has "Freedom isn't Free" banners all over her Myspace and tells her kids that my brother is in Iraq to defend our freedom. She claims some sort of "inside knowledge" of world affairs as a military wife that we lowly civilians don't have. So I figured they had pretty well indoctrinated most of them, frankly.

It's good to know that our man is getting more support from our Military. That is as it should be!

[Captain Hilts]

6. Tell her McCain is an AVIATOR who doesn't know or care about Marines. True.

He voted against improving the GI bill.

Easy for an officer who's got his degree to do.

[LiberadorHugo]

7. You people are too nice...

If somebody that close to me wanted to use hatred, prejudice, and fear and I were their caretaker, I would not help them register to vote.

[lady raven]

11. At times like this I am glad that my mom is half a country away

And that she lives in CA, where her vote won't make any more difference than my Obama vote will in Oklahoma!

[FrenchieCat]

10. I am somewhat tired with this posts of what people's parents are going to do.

Maybe if you showed your mother how McCain doesn't support Veterans and supports torture, it would help......and certainly it would do a whole lot more for us than to have to head the dumbshit....which is all your mother is talking about.

I mean, if you don't know how to explain it to your mom, what makes you think we can? I mean, really?

My mother and father are smart voters, and so they will offset the ones without an ounce of sense.

[lady raven]

13. I didn't come here for you to explain it to her

I simply came to vent. I'm sorry to hear that's apparently not allowed here.

[JuniperLea]

27. How rude!

How is it not appropriate to share experience, vent, or ask others who might have similar experiences for their opinions.

Bully for you and your parents. Some of us come from staunch Republican households and have seen the light despite what our parents tried to show us. This does NOT make us bad people, and it does NOT make our parents bad people either. Not ALL Republicans are stupid either.

[Bluenorthwest]

29. And some nice and informed person

offered the VoteVets website, which will be of great help to the poster. Let me tell you this. I want to elect Barack Obama, and so each and every voting mother is worth my time, and any Democrat who might need advice or release is welcome to come to me. Anytime.
You are one person. You are not 'we'. Speak for yourself, have the courage to say 'I' when you spew. You speak your mind, not the mind of some 'we'.

Or when you say 'we' do you mean you and the rest of your personalities? The mouse in your pocket? You and your smart parents? You and who else?

[Cosmic Charlie]

12. tell her that McCain will send your brother to his doom

ask her to vote against sending him to Iran...

[Bubbha Jo]

14. Tell her this female veteran with a child in OCS is voting for Obama.

Tell her my child's life depends on her vote. Just say no to another neocon.

[bcoylepa]

15. show your mom this

http://www.iava.org/full-ratings-list

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the country’s largest Iraq veterans’ group, looked at 155 Senate votes since Sept. 11, 2001, on legislation that “affected troops, veterans or military families.” It then awarded each senator a grade by comparing his or her votes to IAVA’s view of what constitutes effective support for active troops, veterans and their families.

No senator received an “A” grade. Thirteen senators — all Democrats — received an “A-.” The worst grade received by a Senate Democrat was higher than the best grade granted to a Republican.

Barack Obama got a B+.

John McCain received a “D.”

So much for McCain's support of the troops.

Still not convinced?

John McCain keeps saying "I have a perfect voting record from organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and all the other veterans service organizations."

Sounds good? This is a lie. The VFW and American Legion do not compile congressional voting records, and other veterans' organizations that do compile records aren't favorable.

Disabled American Veterans is an organization that was founded following World War I, and today has 1.4 million members.

It not only tracks this legislation, but tracks how politicians vote.

John McCain is documented as having voted with DAV-supported legislation 34 percent of the time.

Barack Obama has voted with the DAV 89 percent of the time.

[Captiosus]

28. I love that list.

It exposes the great big Republican LIE that they're so pro-military.

I see an awful lot of people with the (R) tag who have "D" ratings.

Can't say I'm shocked.
They're always happy to use our military, not so happy to care about the people who make up the military.

[Shine]

17. I can relate. My mom's voting McBush b/c of her "pro-life" stance.

:eyes: It's the ONLY issue she cares about.

It's very frustrating.

[lady raven]

21. I can't believe that with the MAJOR economic crisis we are facing,

Anyone would consider abortion rights to be the most important issue. I am pro choice, but this time around, frankly, that's near the bottom of my list of importance on the issues. I'm MORE concerned right now about paying the bills, feeding my family, getting us to the doctor when needed, keeping our home, and being able to get the kids to school. Oh, and keeping my brother alive. He just got back from his second tour in Iraq, and I'd really rather he stay safe and not have to go back.

[DeeDeeNY]

19. This has nothing to do with voting for the vet

If she always voted for the vet, she would have voted for Kerry in 2004. In any case, please google veterans groups' ratings given to Obama and McCain. There is so much out there on the Democrats time after time voting for the military and Republicans voting against.

[Marrah_G]

20. Although it is unfortunate she feels that way there is not much you can do

My advice:

Ask your brother to speak to her.

and

Avoid the topic of politics with her.

[lady raven]

22. I have actually learned just to avoid it with her

She does NOT listen to reason and is a single issue, uninformed voter. Discussing politics with her is usually just an exercise in futility and frustration.

[Marrah_G]

32. That's best you can do.

Your family is your family.

You are not alone in going through this.

[Iris]

24. (throat clearing sound) - um, ok. So WHY did she not vote for John Kerry?

He's a vet; Bush is not. If it's that simple for her, it should have been, well, that simple.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

25. When you show her and your military friends all this evidence and they refuse to change their minds.

then press them on what else it could be.

[medicswife]

30. Blue Star Families for Obama is also a very good group

they have a lot of good info as well.

[Overseas]

31. If she always votes vets, she would have voted for Kerry.

And you say she cares about veterans but voted for the Republicans when they wouldn't even give our troops enough armor? When they privatized lots of military services which pushed more of our troops into combat and gave all the safer jobs to Halliburton and other friends of the Bush gang? And charged the US government far more to do the services than we paid when we did them in house? When they sent our troops to war over WMD they later admitted they knew did not exist? Rather sad...

Your Mom may not have heard about John Sidney McCain III's voting record on veterans' issues. Here's only part of the list from Veterans for Obama. The article goes back to 2001. We can only clip a few paragraphs, so click on for more info. ( http://vetsforobama.org/ )

September 2007: McCain voted against the Webb amendment calling for adequate troop rest between deployments. At the time, nearly 65% of people polled in a CNN poll indicted that “things are going either moderately badly or very badly in Iraq.

July 2007: McCain voted against a plan to drawdown troop levels in Iraq. At the time, an ABC poll found that 63% thought the invasion was not worth it, and a CBS News poll found that 72% of respondents wanted troops out within 2 years.

March 2007: McCain was too busy to vote on a bill that would require the start of a drawdown in troop levels within 120 days with a goal of withdrawing nearly all combat troops within one year. Around this time, an NBC News poll found that 55% of respondents indicated that the US goal of achieving victory in Iraq is not possible. This number has not moved significantly since then.

February 2007: For such a strong supporter of the escalation, McCain didn’t even bother to show up and vote against a resolution condemning it. However, at the time a CNN poll found that only 16% of respondents wanted to send more troops to Iraq (that number has since declined to around 10%), while 60% said that some or all should be withdrawn. This number has since gone up to around 70%.