McCain and the Republicans realize that women are a critical swing vote population this year and may well decide this election. Obama appeals to women voters with broad-based, common-sense proposals that will make family life easier. His proposals may be packaged now to appeal specifically to women, but they will benefit all families. That's the true definition of pro-family - not some nonsense spewing about the evils of gay marriage, abortion, and other so-called "wedge" issues. If you're pro-family, damn it, don't just talk about it. Tell us what you'll do to strengthen families and relieve some of the tremendous pressure on dual-income families juggling child care with caring for elderly parents or even a sick spouse! Obama's positions are specific, and include: - Increased access to health care
- Protect Roe vs Wade
- Expand Family and Medical Leave to cover more workers
- Guaranteed sick leave to use for personal or family illness.
- Increased funding for family planning
In contrast, McCain lives up to his nickname, McSame: On his campaign bus Wednesday, McCain said he could not name a campaign initiative focused on women that differed from current Bush administration policy.
Not even in the Lily Ledbetter case (read Mooncat's diary on that), where McSame didn't bother to show up to vote, but did "explain" his position with: The Arizona senator has said that he is "all in favor of pay equity for women," but he missed a vote on a bill that would make it easier for women to sue over pay discrimination. He has said that he is worried the measure would open the door to frivolous lawsuits.
Now, Obama's sick leave provision and FMLA are the ones that interest me the most because I've benefited from one and lost pay without the other. When I was in high school and college, I worked at your usual minimum wage, do you want fries with that? jobs where I didn't get sick leave. So, if I felt bad, there was the mental decision.... did I feel bad enough to lose a day's pay? After all, the car insurance was due. So was tuition. My apologies to all those McDonald's customers I may have inadvertently infected. I thought I had gone to heaven when I went to work at First Christian's day care center and found out that I not only got sick leave but paid vacation! They were a terrific, humane employer and I can't recommend the quality of their program or their teachers highly enough. Then, our daughter was born just a few months after the Family and Medical Leave Act went into effect. My husband and I were able to trade off staying home with our daughter until she was 5 months old. Five months - not the 6 weeks or less that so many families have- if they're lucky. We were lucky on several levels: - We worked for large enough employers that we were covered. Nearly 40% of workers are NOT covered because the employer has to have at least 50 employees.
- We had the money to give up 5 months salary. FMLA leave is UNPAID.
- We didn't need more than the mandated 12 weeks of leave. Unlike this military mom denied job protection to care for her son, who was wounded by a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Her employer, the University of Pittsburgh, denied her coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act and said if she took any more time off to help her son, her job would be terminated. Her three-year battle was just beginning. ---- snip ---- Chmill got the bureaucratic runaround, she said, until she took her case to her local representative, Congressman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., in May 2005. --- snip ----- In January, President Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, which, among other things, amends the Family and Medical Leave Act to permit a next of kin to take up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a member of the active-duty armed forces, National Guard or Reserve who is undergoing treatment for a serious illness or injury.
But what if her son had been hit by a drunk driver and not a suicide bomber? Would his needs have been any less? Probably not. Would the issue have gotten the high-level attention that a fallen soldier got? Probably not. What happens to the rest of us who just happen to get sick, have family member get sick, but don't have job protection? Obama seems to care. McCain either thinks our union will handle it or, just doesn't care. I'm going with the latter...... Just when I thought I might not recover from the disappointment of Obama's FISA vote, GOP candidate, John McSame, reminds me of what's at stake in this election. For a while, thrill was gone with Obama, but the chill from McCain was enough to gin my enthusiasm back up for the Democratic ticket. McSame may talk family values, but Obama's actually planning to enact legislation that truly values families. Which is more important to daily life? |
Campaigning with Senator Hillary Clinton this week, Obama was stressing his support for mandatory sick leave for employees and - particularly dear to my heart - expanded 
