All this talk about PUMAs got me thinking... wouldn't it be great if the people being highlighted by the media "saw the light," as it were, and realized how ridiculous it would be for them to support John McCain? Then I thought...what if one of them were actually doing all this on purpose?!? You know, saying they want to support McCain and getting featured in the news and in McCain ads only to come out later and say that, once she learned who McCain really was, she couldn't possibly vote for the guy. Think of the publicity!
Anyway, it got me to typing...I don't know how to write ads or marketing material, but it was kinda fun to type this up.
MY FICTITIOUS PUMA AD:
"Hi, I’m Kelly, and I am a ‘Hillary Clinton Democrat.’
I worked hard in the primary, hoping to see Hillary get the nomination, and I have to say that I was pretty upset when she didn’t win. More than upset, actually, because I thought having Hillary in the White House would go a long way toward solving the problems this country faces – especially when it comes to Women’s issues.
After the primary, I talked to a lot of my girlfriends and we all agreed that we were going to show our disappointment by voting for McCain. I mean, how bad could it be, right? We knew that McCain would just be a continuation of all of Bush’s policies...and while we knew that was bad, we figured that the country has survived this long. Surely we could survive another 4 years until we could get Hillary into the White House.
Up to that point, I hadn’t really paid attention to who John McCain was or what he stood for. I mean, I’m a Democrat, so I didn’t really see the point in learning about the other guy. I had heard that he was a war hero. Of course, I knew he had been a POW since he reminds us of that all the time. But I didn’t really know anything about his policies.
Eventually, I figured, well, if you’re going to vote for the guy, you’d better learn something about him. So, I went to his website and I started checking around.
First off, I had trouble learning about his recent voting record because, well, he hasn’t voted all that much! John McCain has missed more than 400 votes in the Senate this year alone! That’s nearly two-thirds of all of the votes taken! (1)
Then, when I finally did figure out when he voted, I discovered that he has voted with George Bush 95% of the time in 2007! (2) So for all his talk about being a "maverick," he seems like just another run-of-the-mill Republican rubber-stamper. (Kinda makes me wonder what he meant in those ads he ran during the Olympics when he pointed out that we’re worse off than we were 4 years ago...who does he think is to blame for that?)
And, so, finally, I went to look at the votes themselves and what I learned shocked me! Did you know that John McCain opposed equal pay for women, supports overturning Roe v. Wade, tried to suspend the Family and Medical Leave Act, voted opposed funding to prevent unintended and teen pregnancies, opposed family planning programs, and more! Women’s issues are so unimportant for John McCain that when he was asked recently whether he supported government funding for contraception he said he didn’t know! (3)
I couldn’t believe it! When you look at his policies, he’s no maverick, that’s for sure. And he sure isn’t any supporter of Women’s rights! Even though I was upset about not getting to vote for Hillary, there is simply no way I could vote for McCain! No way!
Oh yes, I looked at Barack Obama’s policies too, and you know what I found? A clear and strong record of supporting women’s issues. (4) Definitely a voting record I could feel proud of, and a candidate I could support with my head held high.
So, yes, I’m Kelly, and I’m still a Hillary Clinton Democrat. And I still wish I had the chance to vote for her for President. But I’m definitely voting for Barack Obama in November. With Hillary leading in the Senate to pass legislation favorable to women’s rights and Barack in the White House signing that legislation and bringing change to Washington, I know this country is going to be a better place for me and for my family. Join me and millions of other women in voting for Barack Obama this November!"
(1) http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...
(2) http://www.factcheck.org/...
(3) http://www.dailykos.com/... (Awesome diary, BTW)
(4) http://obama.3cdn.net/... (need a better link than this)
Disclaimer: I'm not a woman named Kelly...I'm a guy named Scott and I was a John Edwards supporter until...well, until. Now, I'm a big-time Obamamaniac...and a nerdly data-coordinator for the local Obama coordinator North of Pittsburgh. Oh yes, and a big Biden fan.