Dawn Breaks

Michael Goodwin fesses up:

Each time I mention that I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, I get a blast from some who didn’t. “How could you be so dumb?” is a typical response to my confession.

It is certainly a confession — of error. Obama fooled me once, but not twice. I’m voting for Mitt Romney Nov. 6th.

Now, Goodwin had his reasons for voting for Obama, some of which made sense at the time:

McCain, a genuine American hero, often revealed his maverick streak, his choice of Sarah Palin being Exhibit A. Despite doubts about her readiness, I found myself defending her against the vicious attacks from the left, especially by women.

McCain was my real problem. Mavericks make good whistleblowers and lousy CEOs. Upsetting the apple cart is not a qualification for the Oval Office.

I always thought this line of thought interesting -- a lot of people I knew were worried about Palin's readiness in 2008, but not Obama's. But the rest rings true to me. The concern about McCain was legitimate; he wasn't a CEO type. Then again, neither was his opponent. But anyway. . . .

Obama’s soaring rhetoric enticed me at first, and I agreed that a restoration of the Clinton presidency would be a bad idea. Still, I got a jolt of Messiah Alert when he said his rise marked the moment “when the planet began to heal.”

Where he totally fooled me was his claim to be a pragmatist, not an ideologue. He spoke of uniting the country and I believed he was capable and sincere. That he won 70 million votes and more than two-thirds of the Electoral College spoke to his appeal.

This was the part that never made sense to me. There was no evidence at all that Obama was a pragmatist, but a lot of people wanted to believe that. You can't have the sort of career that Obama had and be a pragmatist.

Still, Goodwin figured it out. And he's not afraid to say it.

He failed as president because he is incompetent, dishonest and not interested in the actual work of governing. His statist policies helped consign millions of Americans to a lower standard of living and his odious class warfare further divided the nation. He had no intention of uniting the country — it was his Big Lie.

I don’t hate him. But I sure as hell don’t trust him.

And finally, the coup de grace:

As for the desperate charge that opposition to Obama makes me a racist, let me note that he was black when I voted for him.

If we find in 8 days that Mitt Romney is our next president, it will be the fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream. We will not have judged Barack Obama on the color of his skin, but rather on the content of his character.

By the way, I wonder what Christopher Buckley is thinking these days.