Why Republicans should support Obama

Why would two long-standing Republicans support Barack
Obama for president?
Since we came out publicly supporting Senator Obama we
have been deluged with emails and calls asking us: How can you?
How can you when for decades you have raised and given hundreds
of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates? Wilbur, you
have been a delegate, multiple times, to the Republican National
Convention. You were on Ronald Reagan’s transition team. You
were the Republican Nominee for Mississippi State Treasurer in
1987. Have you lost your mind? And you, Jim, do the members
of the Republican Caucus of the American Association for Justice,
which you founded, know what you are up to? And Jim, have you
told your good friend Senator Orrin Hatch that you support Obama?
You guys have lost your way!
We know Barack Obama is a one term Senator, but Lincoln
was a one term Congressman from Illinois before he became
president. We know that he is young, but not younger than Theodore
Roosevelt was when he became president. We know that his father
was a Muslim, his parentage is bi-racial, and that he spent part of
his life in Indonesia, so to some his patriotism is suspect. Yet, we
also know that no one has identified a single act or comment by
Senator Obama that evinces any emotion other than a deep love and
unwavering devotion to his country.
Worst of all, we hear Republicans say that a President Obama
will raise our taxes. We hate taxes as much as the next Republican.
Indeed, the taxes of both the authors of this book will be raised if
Barack Obama is elected. We know this. But let’s get real. Today
we face the largest deficit in the history of our nation. When the
Bush tax cuts were instituted, they gave us—Jim and Wilbur—tens
of thousands of dollars each, and our secretaries got a few hundred.
But frankly, we don’t feel good about taking a tax break now that
will eventually leave our grandchildren—and your grandchildren—
to face a $5 trillion debt. In the last eight years, under Republican
President Bush, more debt was created than in the 230-year history
of our nation. Candidly, we would rather pay more taxes than have
our servicemen go without essential equipment or see our bridges
fall into rivers because of lack of funds for maintenance.