I was not going to vote for Barack Obama; but I did.

I was not one of those ungodly “undecideds” who couldn’t, after two years, discern any differences between the two major candidates.

I was an early supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton because I felt–and still do–that she has the experience needed at a time when the country faces its worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression and is embroiled in two wars…one needed, one a mistake.

Obama’s cult of personality bothered me. Still does.  I understand why many feel they need a savior, but that sort of thing is best left to religion than to politics where it is historically always dangerous.

Obama’s experience has mostly been running for office….He has spent two years of his first Senate term running for President.

And, I thought he was being disingenious when he told his supporters that he was about a different kind of politics and about change.

The fact is, as predicted here and elsewhere, Obama is turning now to the very Washington (and former Clinton aides) insiders he derided when campaigning against Clinton. In fact, he is gravitating toward many of the same people Clinton undoubtedly would have also approached for top positions.

Obama is smart, a great speech maker and, if nothing else, a pragmatic politician…he does what he needs to do in order to win. And, he will do the same in order to govern.

So, with all of these reservations, why did I, in the end, vote for Barack Obama?

Up until the very last few days, many polls indicated that Obama would smash John McCain and have an easy victory.

Under those circumstances, I  had decided to register a protest vote for one of the minor party candidates knowing that it would not stop the inevitable–an Obama victory, which would have stopped Sarah Palin from going to Washington for anything other than a tour of the White House.

Palin is, like Obama, a good public speaker. She is, in her own Alaska sort of way, street smart, if not politically so. She is also dangerous and her ascension to power in D.C. would have turned the clock back in this country to the 50s.

McCain strikes me as a descent enough man who has endured a lot of suffering in his life–the type of which few among us could ever really understand or appreciate.  But he is old and Palin is young. He is the past of the Republican Party and the idea that Palin might be its future was appalling to me.

In the last few days before the election, some polls started to show a closing of the gap, as pollsters like to say. And, while most still predicted an Obama win, they were no longer so sure…some even suggested a possible McCain upset.

When viewed from this angle, the choice for me became clear. The McCain/Palin ticket had to be stopped and the way to do that was to vote for Barack Obama.

His election is, of course, historic, and in a positive way. Palin’s election would have also been historic, but a historic mistake!

Obama will disappoint as surely as he will inspire. He will play political hardball with the best of them. He will find that talking about bridging political parties is far different from actually doing that.

Being elected America’s first African-American president is an enormous achievement. Being a good, let alone great, president is his challenge.

For More Commentary, Please Visit www.notimetothinkbook.com, The Official Website For THE Media Book Of 2008-09, No Time To Think