Michelle Obama Sealed the Deal -- This Republican is Voting for Barack Obama!

After getting home last from attending the OU/UTEP game in El Paso Saturday night and spending Labor Day shopping in the town square in Santa Fe, NM, I watched this speech on You Tube wanting to see what Michelle Obama had to say to me versus the Ann Romney speech.  Turns out that Michelle Obama hit this speech out of the park with people like me whose family struggled to give us a life that was better than theirs.   Ann Romney's speech left this Republican cold as I thought it was condescending for the most part. The Romney family doesn't understand what it is like to really struggle -- more power to them but when Mitt Romney says to ask your parents for money for college or to start a small business, then Romney is out of touch with a lot of Americans.  I know my parents didn't have the money to fund college or start a small business and neither do a lot of other families. Michelle Obama's speech hit home to me about the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents. My Grandfather was a farmer who had purchased some land and a big house in a small farming town in Ohio. Tragedy struck one night when their farmhouse burned to the ground with only a few items saved and five children to feed. My Mom remembers that right after the fire her Dad said they had had a lot to be grateful for  as no one was injured including the pets all getting out.  He said we will rebuild and he did -- it is still the family farm home.  Grandpa became a Republican because of FDR's New Deal and its farm policy where farmers were paid for not growing crops because he considered that wrong.  He fought the Government for years on what he could grow. He ended up buying property in town when he retired from farming with the money he saved by being frugal.  He bought a house in the small town I grew up in but my grandparents hated being surrounded by houses so they bought a 10 acre piece of property three houses down from where we lived. My grandmother went back to raising her chickens -- she hated store bought eggs and my Grandfather got to have his huge garden which Grandma canned.  They worked hard their whole life to make things better for their children and grandchildren. My Dad's Mom lost her husband (my grandfather) to mustard gas from WWI when my Dad was five years old.  They didn't have social security back then so my Dad quit school after eighth grade to make money to help his Mom and little sister.  When Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec 7, 1941, he enlisted the next day and sent home all the money he could to my grandmother.  My parents were married in Houston before he was shipped to Europe.  The work ethic that started with my Dad when he was a teenager stayed with him his whole life.  Even when he had bad arthritis in his knees and hip, he kept going to work in a foundry so that he could provide for his family.   My Dad was President of his local union -- used to have heated discussions about Unions as I believed in Right to Work.  Dad was also a staunch Republican who gave a speech at his Union's Convention that they had no right to take hard earned money from union dues and spend it on someone's political campaign without a vote of the members.  I was never prouder of him then I was that he would stand at the podium and give that speech which got a standing ovation.  His fellow employees always knew "Corky" was on their side -- he work as hard or even harder then anyone else and was respected not only by his fellow employees, but by management.  When the National Union struck for higher wages, the owner asked my Dad to be the Union Rep to negotiations from his foundry even though he was no longer President because he knew he was a fair man.When Dad had to take a disability, the foundry made sure he received extra pay to get him through the six months that Social Security took to get him the benefits.  Fortunately my grandparents had left their five children enough money to buy their homes and have extra in the bank to survive if something happened.   My brother and I were so lucky to grow up in a household with our Father that put his family first.  I was in high school when it hit me how much my Dad cared.  Mom was in the hospital for gallbladder surgery and Dad took me to JC Penney to pick up her coat from layaway.  As we were walking through the coat section, he looked at a winter coat and said that looks like you, try it on.  I loved the coat -- perfect for walking back and forth to school in winter.  I knew he didn't have a lot of money but he said I am buying it for you.  He took the money he was saving up to buy a new shotgun to go hunting to buy my coat.   The first fall I was out of school, I worked at Sears to make some extra money.  I asked my Dad if he had a wish what tools would he like.  I took the list and bought every tool on it putting it in layaway until I could pay it off.  It was the best Christmas I ever had watching him open the tools one by one with a huge grin on his face and Mom with tears rolling down her cheeks.  I wanted to pay him back for everything he had done for me when I was growing up.   My first car was my Grandfather's that I paid $10 a week.  Used to be my Grandfather's sidekick everywhere he went when I was growing up -- would sit with him on the porch swing talking about everything including politics.  When I got my driver's license, I drove him everywhere.  We had the most interesting discussions on that front porch.  That's where I learned about gardening. He used to tell me how proud he was that I was taking after my Uncle Dave on politics, because he believed we had all had an obligation to get involved.  Will never forget that afternoon when he told me to "always vote for the man not the party."  He went on to tell me that parties change like the direction of the wind and be prepared to be part of that change.  Then he would relate what made him a Republican.  He encouraged me to go to work for Wright-Patterson AFB and leave the 'scum' law firm I worked for so that's what I did. Met my husband at Wright-Patt, married, and had three children -- two daughters and a son.  Can remember to this day when he said in the summer I want you to quit and stay home with our daughter who after visiting Disney World did not want to go back to day care.  I quit, my son was born the next year, my husband was transferred to  Norton AFB, CA, the next year and our youngest daughter was born several years later in California.  No matter the ups and downs, I will always be grateful that I was able to be that Stay-at-Home Mom with our three children who was involved in their school activities throughout the years.  We wanted our children and now our grandchildren to have more than we had growing up.     Most important thing in my life is my Family including my Brother who I just want to the OU Football in El Paso (we won!).  Michelle Obama's speech hit home with me big time.  She was speaking for me and millions across America.   Without the student loan program my son would not be getting his PhD next spring and my youngest daughter would not be a Journalist who learned the value of ethics in journalism from Gaylord Journalism College where she spent hours working for The Daily Oklahoman newspaper on campus.  Both are OU Graduates and my son will be graduating with his PhD in Medieval Literature in the spring from Loyola University in Chicago. My oldest daughter served in the Navy after several years of college and is now a Stay-at-Home Mom with her two daughters.  Couldn't be prouder of my three children and the adults they have become. As I watched her speech, I realized that today's Republican Party is not the Party I knew who cared about our military (they were never mentioned at the GOP Convention), our veterans, our seniors, minorities and people less fortunate.  Today's Republican Party as reflected at the Convention cares about doing anything they can to win, including lying, cheating, and stealing votes by voter suppression.  The Republican Party is now run by rich white males with no core values which leaves me cold. Have been asked how I can support President Obama over Romney and the answer is simple -- we have been lied to by so-called conservatives and Republicans on who Obama really is.  He is American who cares about this Country not some foreigner as Romney and others try to portray.  When you have to lie about a candidate to get people worked up to vote for your candidate, then you have lost your moral compass.  That is what I am seeing today.  The whoppers against Obama are so far over the top, that I cannot believe what I am hearing.  That doesn't even include the racial overtones to some of their comments which they then come out an apologize for which is disgusting as they should know better then say some of this crap.  Today's Republicans in Congress refuse to pass bills that would grow our economy in order to make Obama look bad which is frankly disgusting and shows how small these people are -- they can have all the money in the world but they have zero integrity -- you cannot buy integrity. I do support Obama's reelection over Mitt Romney who doesn't understand those of us in the middle class who have contributed to his millions and made him wealthier from his time at Bain Capital.  The middle class  buying power has shrunk, while the wealthy have gotten wealthier since 2000.  Now the GOP has nominated a candidate who first cannot tell the truth and secondly has the nerve to say that we should borrow the money for college and starting a business from our parents.  That doesn't even include his attacks on the Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and PBS.  Just look at it this way -- Romney is attacking Big Bird which many of our children grew up with over the years.  Yet he wants to add dollars to the Defense Department so they can award more contracts to his big donors.  That smells. When you add his attacks on veterans, minorities, women, police, fire, teachers and civil service workers, I look at myself in the mirror and remember what Grandpa said years ago "vote for the man not the party" and that is what I am going to be doing on November 6th.  Romney has lost my vote while Barack Obama has earned that vote.  His wife, Michelle, sealed the deal with her speech last night.