Welcome to the side of the light, my friend, and welcome to the future.

Imagine how this country would be different had others such as your letter writer not voted for Bush and his continued failure. The letter's author is just one of many who permitted the travesty to continue in this last term of the worst presidency of U.S. history.

And, while I agree with the sentiments of the author, and I'm relieved he has seen the light, it's a day late and dollar short. It's Monday morning quarterbacking at is worst. Voters such as the author, continue to allow what I'd consider a 'war criminal' to continue in office without sanction.

P

I like it better when you let your letter writers supply 90 percent of your text.

Nice that a republican yahoo is suckered by another war monger and corporate whore. Biden has already promised a crisis within the first six months either "international" or "generated" so it looks like we will have another replay of 2001. Your letter writer will end up feeling like they voted for Bush a third time.

See if you publish a letter from him after June.

You know what is happening in June, don't you?

That is an awesome letter.

The McCain campaign, particularly in these last few weeks, has been sad and mean. It seems like everything he might have once stood for, or claimed he stood for, has been discarded in favor of a win at all costs attitude.

I predict that not only will Obama win, but that Palin will be a one term governor and that McCain will actually be given a run for his money on that Congressional seat.

I can only hope there are more out there like him! In the election of 2004. I lost every bit of faith I had in the American people to make a sane and rational decision regarding the office of President when they reelected Bush! It seemed like everyone in this country had taken complete leave of their good sense my son included. I am like the one guy who said 'welcome to the light'! That maybe this country will return to the values we cherished for over 200 years. Leaving this dark disgusting period in our history to the history books.

Last thing anybody needs to do is lecture a convert about what went before -- converts are some of our strongest allies, as their disgust with the current circumstances can't be painted as a predisposition. This guy is in the strongest possible position to bring others around -- it's human nature to resist "I told you so"'s, but he won't be doing that. Welcome to the pro-American fold, sir!

I'll address one of your comments: you have many guns and don't fear losing them. I wonder why it is that most gun owners are so afraid of Democrats taking their guns away. My family's been gun owners/hunters for generations and it's never come up once. Is this just another red herring?

In other words, I'm curious whether, in Texas, there are others without that fear.

I once sat next to a Texan on a flight who owned a hardware store, so I learned you can buy guns at a hardware store in Texas. I think he was surprised that someone as "Liberal looking" as me could talk firearms with him. We parted very cordially with the agreement that tradesmen like ourselves shouldn't argue over politics because most politicians are rather slimy and mendacious.

Maybe I'm being naive, or have "drunk the Kool-Aid," but Obama seems more high-minded than 99% of politicians, and that is reason enough (though there are many others) to vote for him.

Good on the Texan for thinking for himself, though it sounds like his family has a long history of that.

Regarding the Vaue of life (unborn child):

They (the 3 Gs crowd) value an unborn child life, so that later after it was born to subject them to carpet bombing, waterboarding, torture, and hunting for fun. A very sick attitude towards a living being: Save a life to bomb them later? to shoot them from the plane later? Is not that like raising mice to be fed to a a pet snake??

Could it be?

Nah.

It seems something in you stinks and you spew anger at others to try relieve the pressure of the inner rot. I gathered that from reading some of your other letters. Not that you don't present valid views once in a while (most, like smearing Obama with half-truths or utter lies somehow equals revealing or commenting on Palin's actual views, which require no distortion to be reprehensible or just plain ignorant), but that you're so full of invective. Go get laid or high or something, it might calm you down.

Nice letter. Do you think it's real?

Nuff said.

Everyone is having a hard time, not just you. It's just some of us are trying to keep a little hope, be a tiny bit optimistic, and working hard to try to make things better instead of spewing bitter vile like you. In these hardships, the amount of negativity being released is sure to backfire since everyone else has enough to deal with. If you are trying to get people to change their minds about McCain, perhaps put a little more positive, insightful information about him and then maybe some people will take you seriously. Perhaps that's why so many people are drawn to Obama right now (including me and he's getting my vote). Otherwise, help the rest of us try to make things a little better in U.S. Either that or calm down and get laid.

and ran two candidates for governor (one as an independent). The incumbent Republican was reelected with only 39 percent of the vote. The Republican coalition of real estate developers, fiscal conservatives, and social conservatives fell apart because of disagreements about illegal immigration and the use of the state's imminent domain power to create privately (and foreign) owned toll roads.

This foretold the current split in the national Republican party, with the Reagan coalition of fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and foreign policy hawks falling apart. If McCain had the vision to forge a new coalition of fiscal conservatives with social libertarians and foreign policy pragmatists (or some other combination), perhaps he would have had some traction in this election.