from a conservative friend of mine.
He voted for Bush both times. He's a firm pro-life catholic who thinks Reagan was one of our greatest presidents. During the primaries, he was a supporter of Rudy Giuiliani, whom he--a New Jersey voter--credits with "cleaning up" New York City and rallying the country after the tragedy of September 11th.
He's also one of the smartest people I know. During this entire election cycle we've spent countless hours talking and debating, sharing e-mails, watching every one of the debates. We've been through the whole thing, at times arguing with one another, other times we've agreed.
Since last year he's been concerned about the war in Iraq, and more broadly what he sees as the hypocrisy of the war on terror. He came to the conclusion somewhere in the middle of Bush's second term that he had made the wrong choice, even though he couldn't and still can't stomach John Kerry.
He's a fox news watcher, and a frequent visitor to right-wing blogs. He boils over with anger at the mere mention of Nancy Pelosi's name. Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Al Gore--these names elicit the same response. Can't stand Olbermann; loves to watch O'Reilly.
But he's not completely closed off. When I argue with him, his usual response is "let me think about that." He reads Obama's speeches closely, and he's one of the rare people in my crowd that actually seems to be thinking about the issues and weighing the different options. When there is a story of some malfeasance in the government, his first reaction is not to think about how it affects his party of choice, but rather to be outraged at the breach of public trust. I have found through talking with him about politics over the last year or so that we have a lot of common ground, despite our basic ideological differences.
But I'm not writing this diary to tell you about how I won someone over with my arguments. I'm writing to tell you how Barack Obama convinced a solid Republican to vote for him this year.
You see, my friend sent me a picture text message this morning of his New Jersey absentee ballot. The circle next to Barack Obama & Joe Biden's names was filled in.
He's voting for Obama because as a pragmatic pro-life voter he thinks that Obama will do more to lessen the total number of abortions, and because he believes that Obama will promote a culture that respects life at every stage. And he is voting for Obama because he believes this man has the approach and the mind to begin correcting our foreign policy mishaps of the past eight years. He's voting this way because he senses that Obama is--much to his surprise--a more serious man than John McCain, who has been unpredictable and even wild in his campaign choices. McCain has surprised my friend not by being a maverick, but by being increasingly negative and narrow. While McCain disappointed, Obama just got better and better.
And so, while we have a little under two weeks left, I take hope this morning in the fact that a conservative who has watched every stage of this campaign, who has thought carefully and prayerfully about his choice in the election, who lays awake at night worrying about the problems facing our nation, was won over by Barack Obama.