I just came across an interesting column in the September issue of D Magazine by its owner Wick Allison, who was publisher of the conservative magazine National Review in the early '90s. He says he gave the maximum contribution to John McCain during the primaries but now supports Barack Obama.

He repeats what everyone knows (although the Republicans keep trying to switch the blame to the Democrats): "[A] movement that once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth of government in our history." He writes that what passes for conservatism now "has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse."

On the other hand, he writes,

Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

"I doubt he will taunt Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest requires it as an ally," he continues. "The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another war unless American national interests are directly threatened."

Allison is far from the only conservative taking a closer look at the candidates and the Republican party and coming to new conclusions.