Warning: This is the one and only post where I will outright state a political opinion.  If that's upsetting to you please just ignore it.  Thanks for understanding.

CNN just called Ohio for Obama which pretty much puts the Presidency out of McCain's reach.  Even the most generous estimates can't get McCain to a win without Ohio and since there isn't much drama in the other races I thought I'd use my time to write a blog post on the whole mess that was the 2008 election. 

To me, this Presidential Election boiled down to one question: Of two absolutely terrible choices, which would be worst?  I'm honestly not sure how we did on that count. 

But I do have to say McCain's loss brought me a good amount of joy.  First, because I've always disliked him based on his grand standing and it was that very grand standing that became the last nail in his candidacy's coffin.  Even now thinking about it gives me a warm glow in my chest.

But far more importantly because our nation is in a very bad place right now and a McCain victory would have cut off our only way out of it.  Let me explain...

I firmly believe in balance above all else.  Good needs Bad,  Right needs Left, and in this case Authoritarianism needs Libertarianism.  Somehow our nation has gotten to the point where both parties want to dictate how people live their lives and that is a truly terrifying thing.

I don't blame the Democrats for this.  They believe in Government control of things and that belief relies on Authoritarianism to function.  The Government can't control everything if it doesn't control the people under it.  So that's their side of the equation and that's exactly where they should be. 

It is the Republicans who have lost their way.  In 1975 Ronald Reagan said this...

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

Given that quote I need someone to explain to me how a party that claims to follow his lead can condone unwarranted wire taps?  Or care what gay people do with their lives?  Or for that matter how cable companies bundle their channels (a cause McCain took up in the Senate)? 

In return I will gladly offer you an explanation of how the Republican Party could have won the Presidency with 525 of 538 electoral votes in 1984 and lost so miserably in 2008. 

Republicans have abandoned the principles of Libertarianism and in doing so have lost the most powerful thing they had to offer the American People: Freedom.  The Freedom to live your life as you choose and not have to worry about the Government coming in and taking things away from you.  The freedom to know you can follow your dreams as long as you don't intentionally hurt someone else in doing so.  The freedom to know that We, the People, control government and it does not control us.

I have two firm beliefs right now.  One, that the American people want and will respond to an offer of more freedom and two, that the results of this election were an example of people running away from Authoritarianism. 

The problem is, thanks to a corrupted Republican party, they simply had no place to run.

Which, by the way, is where Barack Obama falls for me.  Will he be a good President?  I sincerely doubt it.  He is what George W. Bush was just in the opposite direction.  One wanted to impose traditional values while the other wants to abolish them but both believe they should be allowed to force what they want on the people of the country.

So while Obama may want different things he still, like George W. Bush, wants to control what you do.  Which makes the American people sort of like a compulsive gambler who picks a new loan shark based on the fact that this one breaks legs while his old one broke arms.  Barack Obama will give our arms a rest but the results still won't be pleasant.

But at the same time I doubt it will be Armageddon either.  Bill Clinton won in 1992 with a similar platform and an equally similar control of the congress.  Things went disastrously for him to the point where he lost control of congress.  He regrouped, took a realistic look at the landscape, and ended up being one of our better fiscal Presidents. 

Good Leadership is something you sometimes have to grow into.  George W. Bush's Presidency went badly not because of what he initially did but because he seemed incapable of changing course when his actions clearly were not working.  I truly believe many of Barack Obama's policies will be ruinous for the country but that won't decide his Presidency.  What will decide  his Presidency is how he reacts if things start to go badly.

Leadership is about self correction as much as it's about knowing the right thing to do.  Should things go the way I believe they will the question to Mr. Obama will be can he change course.  If so he may end up being the great President that many out there seem to believe he can be.

As for the Republicans, I guess we'll have to see.  The irony of McCain/Palin is that it was the worst of the party but in two completely separate directions.  McCain, a leftist Republican, paired with Palin who is about as right wing as one can go.  It was two complete opposites joined together by unbridled ambition and political opportunism.

But as different as they were they had one thing in common. Neither subscribed to the Libertarian roots of Conservatism.  Both believed in government control over individual liberty.

Will the Republicans be smart enough to see that and change their ways?  One can only hope...