My mom knocked me right out of my chair last night

[MrCoffee]

(Please don’t take this as advocating for or against any particular candidate. I only report her preference, not mine. I just wanted to share a story about my mom that gives me crazy hope for November.)

My mother, a suburban Texas working woman in her mid-50’s, told me last night the she’s voting for Barack Obama, mostly because she doesn’t like Hillary Clinton. I was flabbergasted, because she’s also (or rather, was) a staunch Bush supporter. I thought for sure she’d gone over to the dark side, regardless of who was nominated. But no, as she put it “I’m voting for the first black President of the United States!” That's when I fell out of my seat.

My mom is a pretty typical voter. She’s not engaged on any particular issue, watches the evening news, and doesn’t read any newspapers or periodicals other than the occasional People magazine. She’s a very smart woman, just not very politically aware. Politics holds no interest for her. We practically stopped speaking in 2004 after a series of unfortunate e-mail forwards that she insisted on sending me.

We talked about her choice for a bit. I was so sure that she’d just vote straight repuke that I asked her about each repuke candidate. She was dismissive of all of them, especially the Ghoul and Mittens. She really didn’t have anything nice to say about Hillary Clinton, and consoled me for my choice, saying “he doesn’t have a chance.”

So here’s the thing: my mom makes me supremely confident in the Democratic candidate’s chances in the General Election. If she is that turned off by the repukes, it’s going to take some colossal screw-ups by WHOEVER the Democratic candidate is to lose.

I think 2008 is ours to take. I think we here in DU tend to forget that the overwhelming majority of voters are more like my mom than they are like us. If my mom is going to vote “for the first black President of the United States”, we are in TERRIFIC shape going into the General Election.

[babylonsister]

1. Give your mom a hug! NOT for

knocking you off your chair, but for her decision. :thumbsup:

[AX10]

2. Another right wing Repub who hates all Democrats except...

Obama.

Yep, the party is being set up for the fall.

[MrCoffee]

7. would you feel that way if she had said she was voting

"for the first female President of the United States"?


or is this another tired "my candidate is better than your candidate" BS post?

[K Gardner]

18. Check the trend.. this one responds to every post with a "RW attack" meme. Ignore it.

[liberalnurse]

21. It sure does have an air of

pungency!.....Yea, she wanted to vote for Howard Dean in 04.

[MrCoffee]

25. care to take a crack at my question in post # 7?

the point was that there is a Democratic candidate who appeals to my mom, who i never would have thought would even consider voting Democratic.

i'll bet you all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that there's someone out there who reacts to Hillary Clinton the same way my mom reacts to Barack Obama.

and anyway, the point of the OP wasn't to endorse/support Obama, nor to trash Hillary Clinton. the point was to show that Democrats have a real possibility of swinging voters that we'd generally lose just on principle.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear MrCoffee!

Here's hoping you're correct!

What can we do as a party to make sure more folks like your mom start thinking the way she is?

That's great news!

Thank you for sharing it!

:patriot:

K&R

[ccpup]

4. my Dad --

who is not the most progressive of Democrats and was quite happy with my Mom staying home and raising the kids -- is voting for Hillary and admitted, rather sheepishly, that it was something he had really had a hard time deciding. But, at the end of the day, he figured in his own opinion that she was the most qualified.

He and I rarely discuss politics, so when he brought this subject up with the dreaded "guess who I'm going to vote for" teaser, I felt for sure he'd say McCain. Imagine my shock when he said Hillary!

P.S. When she was First Lady, he found it inappropriate that she wasn't primarily interested in State Dinners and looking after Bill. He thought she should "stay put" and not "galivant around the World" making speeches and meeting people. After that, politics was one of those "nope, ain't going there" issues between us.

It is quite funny when our parents surprise us, isn't it?

[MrCoffee]

8. it's astonishing the things parents come up with!

:rofl: parents these days!

[ccpup]

17. I know, I know ...

will they ever learn? :shrug:

[MiniMe]

33. Parents say the darndest things!

[madokie]

5. If he makes it to the general I too will be voting for the first Black President

as it stands now though I am very much in the Edwards camp, I trust him to remember who we are, in saying that I'm not saying I don't trust the others, I just trust Edwards more.

[JuniperLea]

9. For the second time today...

I'm with you on that, madokie!

Edwards is the only one who hasn't laid the groundwork for turning a blind eye to the criminals now in office. Edwards is the only one who has not engaged in mud-slinging against his fellow Democrats.

I've been sitting on the fence for a long time, but this past week has pushed me farther and farther into the Edwards camp.

[madokie]

16. I read all I could and listened every chance I got and slept on it for a long time

and about a month or so ago I woke one morning knowing finally who I was going to be voting for in our primary. Voting for the Democratic nominee in the General was never in doubt though ;-) :hi:

[JuniperLea]

27. I couldn't agree more...

We will need every vote come the general election... the more people who vote, the less likely the whole thing can be stolen/rigged.

:hi:

I just took a little longer than you did:)

[307 MMS]

30. Amen!

And love that sig line, madokie.

[JuniperLea]

6. I personally know 6 staunch, life-long Republicans...

Who have stated they will vote for a Democrat in the next presidential election... one is my father. I don't know who he likes, and I don't really care:) I doubt it would be Clinton though... he didn't like "Slick Willy" too much.

[RoadRage]

10. Happy.. but skeptical..

Not about your conversation or your mom.. but she sounds like the type of voter who can easily be swayed by the "Obama took his oath on the Koran" emails, or "Mitt saved 10,000 orphans last week, so vote for him instead" email that will be soon to come.

I'm just saying.. i'm always skeptical of voters who say they're voting for someone when they don't know the issues or candidates very well. They're easy to flip!

[MrCoffee]

12. i hear you...

but i forgot to mention that she's stubborn as a mule. i don't think the repukes know how much work it would take to flip her back, lol.

that's what was so astonishing. i was convinced that she'd made the permanent switch to the dark side.

[Annces]

11. Why doesn't she like Hillary

Because she is a woman? I know my mother did not want her to run, and I think there are many women who subconsciously are antagonstic toward a successful woman.

[JAbuchan08]

15. For the same reason the rest of us don't like Hillary

because we are pure evil.

[IronLionZion]

20. My mom will never vote for a woman politician

she doesn't trust them for some reason. She's voting for McCain because "he's such a good, tough, straight-talking guy".

My Dad on the other hand is supporting Hillary thinking she is "the only one who can clean up after Bush". Thanksgiving and Christmas were interesting to say the least.

[Recursion]

22. Is it impossible for you to imagine...

...that people who don't want to vote for Senator Clinton feel that way because of her positions on various issues?

[MrCoffee]

24. i think that in my mom's case, there's a lot of animosity

left over from Bill Clinton's trashing at the hands of Congressional Ratbastards. My mom was really upset that Hillary didn't kick Bill to the curb after they left the White House, and that transformed in her mind to everything Hillary does is calculated and political.

it's not a well-reasoned, well, reason, to be sure, but it's how she thinks about Hillary Clinton.

[BlackVelvet04]

13. My dad who has never voted for a Democrat in a

presidential election said he would vote for Barak Obama or John Edwards if one of them is the nominee.

[MrCoffee]

28. that's even better!

2 potential nominees who could swing another lost vote.


i'm stunned by this. this is fantastic news!

[BlackVelvet04]

31. I'm pretty sure my mom will vote the Democratic ticket

as well. She told me that Dick Cheney is evil.

Maybe something good has come from the last 7 hideous years....some people woke up.

[northofdenali]

14. And my mom - who is a little farther left than I am -

IF you can believe that! is voting for Hillary.

I still haven't made a choice among the "front runners", because "my guy Al" isn't running. But I will. And when I do, I'll make a difference, because I bust ass to get my candidate elected.

And he/she will be a DEM in all ways, shapes and forms.

FREEDOM Y'ALL!!

[European Socialist]

19. yup, the Repuke candidates are horrendous...

except Ron Paul on foreign policy.

[K Gardner]

23. My son works with a very large restaurant/hotel corp in Ohio.. he was in today

and I asked him how they were bracing for the recession. Son is a hard-core Dem like me, but his co-workers and the owners have traditionally been staunch Republicans. He said the first thing they were going to do was "make sure the Republicans stayed out of office.. they've had enough of this shit." So, even the traditional upscale corporate money voters, to some extent, have seen the light. May not hold true everywhere, but I consider all of this good news!

[MrCoffee]

26. hear hear!

:hi:

[FlyingSquirrel]

29. Thanks for giving me some hope. nt

[dailykoff]

32. Great story. Texas did after all elect Ann Richards.

I really doubt that Obama would be unelectable in the South if the machines weren't rigged.