Recently a friend sent an email to me encouraging me to vote for John McCain. For anyone who is interested, a trimmed down version of my response is behind the cut.

I was strongly in McCain's camp in 2000 and was pretty disappointed when he lost the nomination... so much so that I wrote his name on the ballot for the general, fully knowing it didn't count since he wasn't declared as a candidate.

Anyway, if you'd told me then that he'd be the Republican nominee in 2008 I'd have thought you were nuts. I would want to believe it, but there's no way you convince me he'd survive the primary season. And as hard as it would be to convince me in 2000 that McCain would be the 2008 Republican nominee, it would be harder still to convince me that I would be supporting the Democratic candidate.

Why Obama? It probably has more to do with my disgust for the way the national GOP has been acting for the last 8 years. I lean right on economic issues and I lean left on social issues. I'd be a moderate libertarian if such a thing was allowed. So my support basically comes down to this:

Anti-GOP (all apply to McCain):

• I like the current left/right balance on the Supreme Court. Republican appointed judges would cause a lurch to the right.
• Questioning the patriotism of anyone who objects to abuse of executive power and protection of the rights of the accused.
• Using fear/terrorism for political gain.
• Being weaselly about torture
• Everything about social conservative absolutism that any Republican candidate needs to support if he wants voters to show up in November.
• The neo-conservative agenda for "transforming" the Middle East via Iraq. We've created some pretty nasty monsters in the last 50+ years by destabilizing regions and setting up puppet governments, and we're still doing it today.

Anti-McCain:

• His support for the torture bill in 2006
• Palin--my mind was made up long before she was picked, but she certainly doesn't help

Pro-Obama:

• Doesn't demonize his opponents
• Temperament--he's stable, respectful, and thoughtful
• I appreciate his sense of community and public service
• A clean break with Bush's foreign policy is needed to start repairing our image overseas. Regardless of how much is substance and how much is style, we get more accomplished with our neighbors if they don't see us as a bully.
• I like the image of a mixed-race POTUS--I'd be lying if I said race wasn't a factor
• Inverse of everything under the Anti-GOP list

I'm not voting for Obama just because he's anti-Bush. I certainly would have voted libertarian if Hillary Clinton had been the Democratic nominee (I think she shares some of Bush's worst qualities--hyper-secretive, politicizing everything, and intolerant of disagreement). Obama is the first major party candidate that I've ever supported for the general election. I'm very enthusiastic about voting for him in the fall.

(yes, this is a shorter version)