My name is Julie, and I confess: I'm a lifer in the Republican party. The only time I voted Democratic was my first election: 1980. I liked Jimmy Carter and didn't know Reagan. However, four years later, I was converted to evangelicalism and Reagan while attending UCLA. My parents' divorce drove me to look for rock solid moral values that would protect me from adultery, that would ensure that my children grew up in a healthy, nurturing environment, that would promote the traditional family, that would reignite pride in our country (after what felt like a decade of shame in the 1970s).

I was one of those young adults who found the memory of the 60s to be threatening and dangerously a-moral. I wanted something I could count on. Conservatism gave it to me.

But in the last couple of years, my entire worldview flipped and Barack Obama has had a significant hand in that changed perspective. Several dkos members here have suggested I write a diary about it, so this is it. More on the other side.

Over 4000 enthusiastic supporters hosted "Unite for Change" Obama events today. My husband and I (lifelong Republicans) were two of them. Nothing has galvanized me into the level of optimism, enthusiasm or political activism like this Obama campaign. That's why I am proud to be a "fan" and a part of the grass roots work that will make the dream come true: President Obama.

More about our little "neck of the woods" event on the flip side.

My mother is turning 70. She is white, raised by Irish Catholics in Chicago who were die-hard Democrats. Her grandparents were immigrants. Her father was a self-made man who came from an alcoholic father and started working to support his mom and 12 siblings after he completed 8th grade. He died at 93, a millionaire. This is my mother's background.

She married my dad (another Irish Catholic, Notre Dame grad) and moved to southern California in 1960 where they promptly moved into a secular Jewish neighborhood and became Republicans. My mom has been a Republican now for her entire adult life, much to the chagrin of her parents at the time. She became an evangelical Christian about 25 years ago. As a result, she has voted Republican every election since 1960.

New: Obama's remarks in today's Indiana stump speech (including how he is framing his pastor's remarks). He does what we hope he'll do and he does it so well.