After 40 years as a card-carrying Republican, I’ve decided to vote for Obama. I am a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. The party has taken a wrong turn, toward divisiveness and incompetence and fiscal irresponsibility.

Under the current leadership, the size of the federal government has increased and the national debt has doubled. In addition to budget deficits we have off-book spending to finance the war. They’re trying to demonize Obama as tax-and-spend, but borrow-and-spend is even worse in my book.

I think it is pretty clear that total deregulation has failed in every case. The free market system is an appealing ideal, but it has led to unchecked greed and has ruined the economy.

I strongly supported the war in Afghanistan. Going after Bin-Laden in his cave is the right thing to do. Invading Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al-Qaida. Those with dissenting opinions were ignored and smeared. (e.g. Valerie Plame)

To me, true conservatism means less government intervention in our lives. The Republican Party is toward ever more intervention, from wiretaps to Terry Schaivo. Many of these are hot-button issues meant to capture single issue voters. This has led to winning elections but the abandonment of true conservative values.

There is no evidence that trickle-down economics and tax cuts for the wealthy have created jobs or helped grow the economy. On the contrary, history shows little correlation between tax rates and job creation. Under current party leadership, the middle class has jobs and experienced a decline in real income.

John McCain continues to advocate tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and an indefinite continuation of the war in Iraq. I think we have pretty clear evidence that those policies are wrong. It’s definitely not working for me. I’m voting for Obama

Now that it appears that Barack Obama will win the election, what are your expectations for his first months in office? What do you expect of him — what policy or policies led you to vote for him, as opposed to just voting against McCain? Please reply to comments@mcpheet.com. Thanks.

Hey guys, please limit threadjacking to a minimum, and don’t spam my blog please and thank you.

sometime around early afternoon tomorrow, tens of millions of liberals will begin a process of complete and total panic over the possibility of Obama losing

I figure, why wait til tomorrow. I’m an early bird.