I've been supporting Barack Obama for a long time - didn't start out with him, but he won me over with his calm, cool and class.
I expect him to be one of the greatest Presidents of my lifetime. I planned to donate, of course, but wasn't sure my wife, who was a strong Hillary supporter and was upset about the sexism, would go along.
I hadn't planned on donating this much, but...this country has been great to me. George Bush gave me tax cuts I didn't need and never asked for, adn all the while I've been watching my (younger) middle class friends with young families trying hard to keep their heads above water.
So I did it. $2,300 for Obama.
And thank you for the inspiration, Sarah Palin. $2,300 from my wife, as well.
My more conservative friends have been asking me all day, with a Cheshire cat grin, what I thought of the speech.
"It offended me to my very soul."
To a one, they couldn't understand that, until (for some - others are just hopeless), I explained. "To buy into the ridicule and mockery and venom Sarah Palin spouted is to tell me that everything I have believed in regarding America since I first read JFK's New York speech is a lie and a joke. To buy into Palin's divisive rhetoric is to call ME a joke. And to blame the liberals for the disaster of the last eight years is the saddest joke of all."
Many of my friends are middle of the road. Most of them were not only offended, but some, including some who couldn't really afford it, called to day to tell us that they just donated to Barack Obama.
I hear he's going to hit $10 million between Palin's speech and McCain's, so I guess many of you are hearing the same things.
My biggest hope is that some of my conservative friends will begin to understand that their hate-radio rhetoric has gone too far.
Peace,
Bob