Middle ground for moms

Newport Beach resident Debbie Devine voted for John McCain. Michelle Tingler voted for Barack Obama.

The two friends don’t always agree on the issues. But together, they hope to create a dialogue between women of all political stripes.

Both busy mothers, Devine and Tingler are the founders of o-mama.com. That’s O-MAMA, as in “Opinionated Mama.”

The new website bills itself as a place for current news and events from a mom’s perspective, and where moms on all sides of the political kitchen table can gather around.

The project grew out of e-mail debates that Devine and Tingler had with their friends on political issues during the 2008 presidential election season.

“We found we learned a lot about each other’s perspectives after talking, and we came to a common-sense middle ground because we were all moms,” Devine said.

Devine and Tingler both left demanding careers to raise families.

Devine worked for CNN for more than 10 years, laying the groundwork for various offshoot networks, including CNN en Español.

A mother of two children, ages 11 and 6, today she runs a student travel company that takes teenagers to Latin America to do community service.

Tingler, a Tustin resident, once worked as a vice president of an advertising agency before leaving her job to raise her three children, ages 10, 7 and 3.

One of her biggest clients was the candy company Nestlé, which named a candy after her, called “Tinglerz.”

The O-MAMA website features blog entries from both left-leaning Tingler and right-leaning Devine on topics ranging from health care and abortion to Rihanna and Chris Brown.

Moms who use the website can customize their page to participate in discussion groups for divorced moms, gay moms, working moms, and everything in between.

“It’s not another mommy blog,” Tingler said. “Other websites are focused on the process of parenting, but there wasn’t anything out there about the psychological or political aspects of motherhood.”

Over Devine’s kitchen table, she and Tingler also debate hot-button issues like immigration and war.

“We’re not actors, or celebrities; we’re just moms who have opinions, and we’re genuinely friends who like each other,” Tingler said.

The heated kitchen talks between Republican Devine and Democrat Tingler are videotaped and posted on the O-MAMA website.

“Sometimes we have to agree to disagree, but we try to find a middle ground where we can both agree on certain things,” Devine said.

On The Web

Visit www.o-mama.com to read more about its local founders, Debbie Devine and Michelle Tingler. The website features commentary from liberal and conservative points of view on hot-button political issues.