Welcome to Barack Utopia

As a committed conservative who last voted Democrat in 1984, I was very disappointed with the outcome of this year's Presidential election. I will readily admit that I wasn't crazy about either major party's nominee (McCain was my 4th choice coming out of the GOP behind Romney, Huckabee and Thompson), but evaluating the content of both their messages, thought the choice was very clear.

In my opinion, Senator McCain and his campaign made several mistakes that cost him votes, including avoiding the Jeremiah Wright issue, their mis-handling of Sarah Palin, and voting for the bailout. To be fair, I'm not sure that McCain could have won even with the "perfect campaign". 2008 will go down as the Year of the Donkey I guess.

In the end, Barack Obama won the White House at least partially through very skillful delivery of the standard boiler plate Democratic Party message: country's going the wrong way, Bush did it, we can fix it, blah blah blah. During the campaign, especially in the 3 debates, he came across as a "plausible" President among voters who had not yet made up their minds. The financial crisis that emerged in September pretty much sealed the deal for Obama and the Democrats.

The thing I like about blogging is it allows the blogger to establish a permanent, time-stamped record of what he's thinking at that very moment. The election is over, my guy didn't win, but here are 3 thoughts from a John McCain supporter 3 days after Senator Obama became President-Elect Obama:

1. Barack Obama will take office with a clean slate with me. None of this "not my President" garbage that we heard 8 years ago. I had my reasons for picking the other guy, but 60 million Americans have spoken, and I am ready to see what he can do. The voting record, the "spread the wealth around" comment, Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Joe the Plumber are all in the rear view mirror, and none of it moves our troubled country forward. Clean slate. Clock starts NOW.

2. I want Barack Obama to succeed. If he can lead us out of this financial mess, keep our nation safe, respect and protect our freedoms, protect U.S. interests abroad and not tax us all into oblivion, I will be first in line to re-up President Obama for another 4 years. If it turns it into the Harry Reid / Nancy Pelosi / MoveOn.org Show, he's going to lose me fast and he will be a very unsuccessful one term President. We are a center-right country, and if President Obama has the courage to stand up to the far left moonbats who claim responsibility for President Obama, he has a chance to lead us to a better place.

3. Barack Obama demonstrated real class on the eve of the election when he offered very kind remarks about John McCain after McCain contacted him to offer sympathy after the death of his grandmother. He did not have to do that in the hours leading up to the opening of the polls, but doing so speaks to the kind of stuff I want my Prez to be made of.