I and my wife voted early on Friday afternoon. Our wait was about a hour and half long. Last Monday I had made up my mind and we finally made it to the polls for early voting. I held my eight month old daughter for about half that time as she slept in my arms, we slowly snaked up the incredibly slow moving line. It took me a long time to figure out how I was going to vote for the presidential ticket after I had ruled out voting for Obama. I had planned not to vote unless it was for a Third Party candidate. I really want to see the end of the two party system of just Democrat and just Republicans. Sadly none of the major Third Party candidates appealed to me that much. Barr is a joke. He has hurt the Libertarian ticket in my opinion maybe beyond repair. Chuck Baldwin seemed interesting but he didn’t even make the ballot in NC.

For full disclosure, I voted for Ron Paul in the Republican primary, my wife voted for Huckabee. Neither of us where die-hard McCain supporters but we thought he would be slightly better than Obama. His senate record is a endorsement to conservative pragmatism and bipartisanship, be that a good thing or bad thing.

I really liked McCain in the 2000 primary. I even enthusiastically voted for him then. The McCain of 2008 seems to be inconsistent. He seems like part McCain 2000 mixed with whoever the Republican spin doctors were that tried to remake him into their mold. They wanted him always smiling and didn’t want him to get angry or appear to be too emotional. I hate spin. I voted for McCain in 2000 in the Republican primary and wished he had won. He didn’t. To be honest, I think Bush was a awful president on pretty much every single fiscal issue that his administration has touched. The GWB version of compassionate conservatism added to the fiscal mess America is now in. It was coupled with a version of a dead Republicanism that had died after the 1998 Clinton scandal. The RNC was obsessed with impeachment and forgot about reforming America, coupled with bad housing policy from the Democratic Carter era that got steam rolling under Clinton and again under Bush has led to our economy tanking. This has all been coupled with American greed for “the good life” which has led to the big mess our economy is now in.

Bush did do some good for the country but on a whole it was not a well run administration. In 2008 I voted for Ron Paul in the primary because I felt McCain wasn’t being himself. Huckabee didn’t impress me in that he didn’t seem to articulate what he would do as President, Thompson didn’t have the fire to fight, Romney just didn’t impress me until ironically his succession speech, and Giluini is pro-choice so I couldn’t support him on those grounds. Ron Paul for better or worse is always Ron Paul. I think McCain listened way to much to his campaign advisers. As a result his just didn’t seem genuine. The story of John McCain is very remarkable an admirable story. Ironically, in the last month of the campaign he has seemed more like the McCain of 2000. He started talking more about his views (excluding the pandering bailout package which he supposedly supports) and started to sound more like a old school Reagan style Republican. I liked that and decided to vote for him for that reason, as did my wife.

Oh, as for the pick of Sarah Palin as VP, I think Palin was a mixed bag for the ticket. Her first appearance was awesome it really helped rally the base of the RNC behind McCain. Her media appearances have been a mixed bag. My guess is she likely will be a fresh face for a new kind of Republicanism in America. Her pro-life stance is admirable. I think we will see her out there again if the McCain/Palin ticket doesn’t win this election. I think what hurt her most was listening to the same advisers that tried to change John McCain into someone he is not and told her not to speak to the press. It cut into her reformer maverick image. Listening to those advisers was a huge mistake and it may have cost them a election.