As many of you may know, I was not enthused about John McCain as the Republican nominee, to say the very, very least. I won’t rehash the reasons here, but they dovetailed with strongly held convictions that have stood the test of time. That, combined with Republicans’ not being willing to take any positive action on anything, much less even defend themselves, also led me to change my party registration to unaffiliated. I do not regret anything I said or wrote or did, but someone needs to call Hell and ask for a weather report.

I am voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin. I am sending money to John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Here are the reasons why, in no special order.

• The Democrat nominee for President is most certainly the least qualified, incompetent lightweight to be nominated by a major party in my lifetime, and arguably in the past 130 years. I had planned on writing Ronald Reagan’s name on my ballot so I could say I voted for him three times. The idea of turning over the keys to the country I love so much to someone who is worse than bad – he is, and has been, absolutely irrelevant in every way – is intolerable. Period. There is a bare minimum level of experience and competence that I had assumed Democrats would demand when selecting a nominee. I was wrong.

• Sarah Palin. I actually KNOW women like Sarah Palin. Tough, confident, and loving, brimming with conviction and intelligence, unafraid to do the right thing or to drop the gloves if needed. I do not know women like Hillary Clinton, or Donna Brazil, or Nancy Pelosi, or Debbie Wasserman What’s Her Name, or any of the women the left tries to pass off as mainstream. Not a single one. What a refreshing and REAL change Sarah Palin is for the country, what a needed boost for the Republican Party.

• General Wesley Clark (among others). Thanks so much for clearing my head about the left’s attitude toward military service. If you serve to check off a box on your political resume’, haul ass after three months, then betray your country and the people with whom you served – that’s OK. If you served, were taken prisoner and beaten so badly you can’t comb your hair to this day, then refused an offer to be released from a living hell, you are “milking” your service, or were “riding in a jet” that got shot down. (On a side note, after watching the “salute to retired generals” at the Democrat National Convention, I am also convinced there are too damn many generals.)

• There is a lot of pure evil on the left. A lot of it. I am not real sure where it came from, but you don’t need to look very far or listen very hard to know this. It has become particularly evident in the last few days. People who would just as soon have American political discourse turn into Zimbabwe’s as long as they were in charge have taken over the Democrat Party. It is shocking to old line Democrats and the few remaining principled liberals, but not shocking enough for them to attempt to take their party back. Their silence, just like Barack Obama’s silence while sitting in Jeremiah Wright’s church, is tantamount to support. When I see someone with an “Obama ‘08” button or bumper sticker, for the first time in my life I do not view them as the loyal opposition or good people with which I have differences of principle. I view them as shrill and sinister, perfectly willing to stand on a dead body or assault my children if that will further their agenda. Oh, and kinda dumb, too. Any victory, especially winning the White House, would reinforce the idea that the vile politics of hate and destruction work. I can’t be even a small part of that.

• Sometimes when you are called upon to lead, the small ball politics of back and forth fade and overarching principles become the focus. Sometimes when you are called upon to lead, you spend all your time engaged in pettiness, pathetic and weak attempts to settle scores, or running away from the promises you made and now have the power to enact. After winning the House and Senate, Democrats have done the latter. John McCain, I believe, is doing the former (to my surprise), and has endorsed a lot of big conservative principles that he, as a man of high honor, cannot go back on. He just can’t. So it comes down to trusting a man who I have vigorously, heatedly and passionately disagreed with on many occasions. I have made the decision to do so.

Sorry for the length of this diary, but I have written at least ten times as many words having to do with why I would NEVER vote for John McCain. And in my defense, the arguments that I considered weak then I consider weak now. The situation has simply changed. So pardon me while I do the thing I never thought I would – stroke a check to support the next President and Vice-President of the United States, and change my voter registration back to “Republican”. All is not perfect, but this is a good place to start.