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Edited on Fri Aug-01-08 07:31 AM by Independent_Voice
My mom recently forwarded me this email that someone else sent to her, basically a puff piece on Cindy McCain. I don't know if my mom thought it might change my mind as far as how I'm going to vote in November, or if she just sent it along to me due to my interest in politics.
I'll admit I don't know the full spectrum of Mrs. McCain's past history and present conduct...is there anything I can say to my mom to make the case that these accolades are merely a smokescreen to cover up John McCain's negatives?
NOTE: My mom would probably be most accurately described as a moderate Republican. She is pro-life but thinks abortions should be legal in cases of rape or incest or health risks (a point where she disagrees with my dad -- he is basically a Rush Limbaugh disciple and doesn't believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances). She supports same-sex marriage and stem-cell research, but has this illogical fear that electing Democrats will raise her taxes. Both of my parents are small business owners (earning less than $30K a year combined), and they basically blame "the liberals" for the high amount of small business taxes that they pay.
My mom told me that she and my dad and my sister all voted for Obama in the February primaries (I live in a different state than they do)...according to my mom, their reasoning was that since McCain pretty much had the Republican nomination locked up at that point in time, they threw their votes to Obama as the "lesser of two evils" (since they had open primaries), from their perspectives -- meaning that if the eventual president is going to be a Democrat, they felt they could ultimately trust Senator Obama slightly more than they could trust Senator Clinton to govern. Still, my mom's overall impression of Obama is that he's "uppity," and overall she doesn't really trust him.
So what were the basic points of this forwarded email highlighting Cindy McCain's *virtues*?
-- she's a savvy businesswoman
-- she cares about children with special needs
-- she's a military parent and thereby understands patriotism due to the sacrifices of her enlisted children
-- she does humanitarian work across the globe
-- she's a wonderful and caring mother
-- she does more to help people than Michelle Obama does
This email just made me sick, not that I have anything against Mrs. McCain as a person, but because it was clearly an embellished description of Cindy McCain designed to trash Michelle Obama, and by association, Barack Obama.
My dad is a lost cause as far as voting in November (he'll begrudgingly pull the lever for McCain), but my mom could potentially be swayed. Prior to the 2004 election, when I challenged her to name one single beneficial thing that Bush had done since taking office, she couldn't name a single thing. She only voted for Bush because she said she didn't trust Kerry.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of appeal I could make to my mother? I refuse to believe she's a lost cause, only because in private conversations with her I've seen how much she disagrees with my dad on several political issues (although she doesn't openly discuss or argue about those issues when around my dad).
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< The forwarded email reads as follows >
*****************
Please read to the end
Cindy McCain...Very
Interesting!
Cindy McCain
Bet you would have never guessed this one! No matter your
politics.
The media will never tell of this, so
pass it on.
There was an article in the Wall
Street Journal on Cindy McCain,
John's wife.
All I ever saw was this attractive
woman standing beside John. I was
surprised
how talented and involved with world
problems she is. This is a summary of the article.
She graduated from Southern Cal
and was a special-needs teacher.
After her Dad died she became involved with his beer
distributing firm and is
now the chairwoman. Sales have doubled since she has taken
over from
her father.
They have a marriage prenuptial agreement and her assets remain
separate.
She is involved around the world clearing land mines -
travels to these
countries on a detonation team and serves on their board.
They have a 19 year old serving in Iraq, another son in the
Naval Academy,
daughter recently graduated from Columbia University,
an adopted daughter in
high school, and a son who is the finance guy at the beer firm.
They've raised their kids in Phoenix,
Az. rather than Washington DC because of a better
atmosphere. He commuted.
In 1991, Mrs. McCain
came across a girl in an orphanage in Bangladesh.
Mother Teresa implored Mrs.
McCain to take the
baby with severe cleft palate.
She did so without first telling her
husband. The couple adopted the girl who has
had a dozen operations to repair her
cleft palate and other medical problems.
They have a Family Foundation for children's causes.
She's active with 'Halo Trust' - to
clear land mines, provide water and
food in war ravaged and developing
countries.
She will join an overseas mission of 'Operation Smile', a
charity for
corrective surgery on children's faces.
She has had two back surgeries and became addicted to pain
killers.
She talks openly about it which she says is part of the
recovery process.
I'm surprised the media is so quiet about her attributes.
She sounds more
capable than Hillary or Obama. We
would really get two for the price
of one. A person with business and international experience.
John did work for the firm for
awhile when he left the Navy. She,
however, has the real business experience. Very interesting.
Election 2008:
Cindy Hensley McCain has been disparaged as a trophy wife, a
Barbie, an heiress with fancy purses, even the Paris Hilton
of politics. But there's more to the picture than meets the
eye.
Yes, Mrs. McCain is the perfectly coifed blonde standing
dutifully behind the senator during his speeches. And yes,
she wears stylish clothing and carries a Prada purse. And
it's true she doesn't say much.
But feminist critics who write her off as a
'stand-by-your-man' shrinking violet are selling her short.
In many ways, Cindy McCain stacks up sturdier than Hillary
Clinton or Michelle Obama. And she'd make a more impressive
first lady.
While Obama's wife has been hating America, complaining
about the war and undermining our troops serving in Iraq and
Afghanistan, McCain's wife has been worrying about her sons
who actually are fighting or planning to fight in the war on
terror. One, in fact, was until a few months ago deployed in
Iraq during
some of the worst violence.
You don't hear the McCains talk about it, but their
19-year-old Marine, Jimmy, is preparing for his second tour
of duty. Their 21-year-old son, Jack, is poised to graduate
from Annapolis and also could join the Marines as a second
lieutenant. The couple made the decision not to draw
attention to their sons out of
respect for other families with sons and daughters in harm's
way.
Cindy also says she doesn't want to risk falling apart on
the campaign trail talking about Jimmy who was so young when
he enlisted she had to sign consent forms for his medical
tests before he could report for duty and potentially
upsetting parents of soldiers who are serving or have been
killed.
The McCains want to make sure their boys get no special
treatment. Same goes for their five other children,
including a daughter they adopted from Bangladesh. During a
visit to Mother Teresa's
orphanage there, Cindy noticed a dying baby. The orphanage
could not provide the medical care needed to save her life.
So she brought the child home to America for the surgery she
desperately needed. The
baby is now their healthy, 16-year-old daughter, Bridget.
Though all seven McCain children including two Sen. McCain
adopted from his first marriage are supportive of their
father, they prefer their privacy to the glare of the
campaign trail. Another daughter, Meghan, 23, helps him
behind the scenes.
Cindy McCain not only cherishes her children, but also her
country, which in an election year filled with
America-bashing, is a refreshing novelty. She seethed when
she heard Michelle Obama's unpatriotic remarks that she only
recently grew proud of America. 'I am very proud of my
country,' Mrs. McCain asserted.
She also may be tougher than the other women in the race.
While Hillary thinks she's come under sniper fire on mission
trips abroad, Cindy has actually seen violence. She
witnessed a boy get blown up by a mine in Kuwait during a
trip with an international group that removes land mines
from war-torn countries.
Mrs. McCain also is a hands-on philanthropist. She sits on
the board of Operation Smile, which arranges for plastic
surgeons to fix cleft palates and other birth defects. She
also has helped organize relief missions to Micronesia.
During a scuba-diving vacation to the islands, Mrs. McCain
took a friend to a local hospital to have a cut treated. She
was shocked, and saddened, by what she saw.
'They opened the door to the OR, where the supplies were,
and there were two cats and a whole bunch of rats climbing
out of the sterile supplies,' she recalled. 'They had no
X-ray machine, no beds. To me, it was devastating because it
was a U.S. trust territory.'
As soon as she returned home, she arranged for medical
equipment and teams of doctors to be sent to treat the
island children.
Michelle Obama may contribute to CARE, which fights global
poverty and works to empower poor women. Cindy sits on its
board.
While the Democrat women talk about helping the poor and
needy, Cindy McCain actually rolls up her sleeves and does
it. Who's the out-of-touch elitist?
On edit: Sender's name/address deleted.
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