Well here we are on the eve of—wait for it—the most important election of our lives. I know, I know. It’s a tired old expression we get every cycle. It’s a presidential election. It’s as important as the last one and the next one. And as a presidential election, there’s a lot at stake.

And rest assured, no one knows what will happen tomorrow—no one. I have overheard conversations lately wherein I hear people who have yet to make up their mind. I tend to think that most of those who have not yet decided (for Obama) will cast their vote for McCain (Palin).

McCain/Palin will get my vote. Not because I am thrilled at McCain’s conservative credentials or because I am convinced he is walking excellence. Like many, I will vote for McCain because he’s not Obama…and because he had the good sense to choose Palin.

There will be record turn-out tomorrow; relatively huge numbers of Americans will show up to vote. Incumbents and challengers alike will see their careers end. Incumbents and challengers alike will be thrust into power. The sheer number of voters has the capacity to make a mockery of all the polls leading up to the Poll. Possibilities: a squeaker or a landslide for either ticket. Who knows? Only time will tell.

But, as we prepare to vote for the man we will both revere and torture for the next four years, let’s consider what’s at stake.

Appointment Power
The President of the United States has, inherent to his position, the right to appoint a couple thousand positions. From his cabinet to obscure agencies, bureaus, and departments, with the stroke of a pen, the next president will replace the remains of the Bush administration with his people. Chief among the president’s appointments are Supreme Court justices. With the age of John Paul Stevens (88) and the poor health of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the two most liberal justices on the Court, it is very likely that we will see one or both of these individuals depart the Court in the next president’s term.

Predictions

If Obama wins, one of these justices announces his or her pending retirement before Obama is sworn in. Having a large Democrat majority in the Senate, Obama nominates someone truly scary to the Court—maybe even Bill or Hillary Clinton—and they will be confirmed. Shortly after the first confirmation, the other justice (of Stevens and Ginsburg) announces his or her retirement. The reasons for this are that it puts the choice of their replacements in a liberal president’s hands with confirmation by a liberal-controlled Senate.

If McCain wins, we’ll still see probably at least one departure and maybe two, though the second will probably depend on what they think of President McCain’s first selection. One will come in the first two years of the administration so as to have McCain’s promise of originalist justices tempered by the Democrat-controlled Senate. If the Senate succeeds in hampering McCain’s promise, the second vacancy will likely occur.

These two possible vacancies represent the first opportunity to shift the philosophy of the Supreme Court into the decidedly conservative, originalist realm in a good long time, and will likely not be repeated for a generation. If McCain is elected, there exists an opportunity to shift solidly liberal seats into the conservative, originalist (anti-judicial activism) column. If Obama is elected, these two seats remain unchanged philosophically for a long, long time. Obama’s election to the presidency will undo the many years of hard work by pro-lifers. It will be akin to a marathon runner tripping 10 yards from the finish line.

The Economy, Stupid
Any increase of taxes (even on those evil rich mean people who make $250,000 $200,000 $150,000 $120,000 $42,000 a year) is utter stupidity—especially in economically trying times. Just ask Herbert Hoover. People may not believe in trickle-down Reaganomics, but they sure have enjoyed its playing out since the 1980s. Prosperity trickles down (you know, John Kennedy’s rising tide lifts all boats thing), but misery rolls down hill. Enjoy these days of low interest rates and low unemployment because Jimmy Carter’s misery index will look like the good ole days if President Obama and the liberal-controlled Congress begin to do what that have been slavering over: cutting defense spending, raising taxes, increasing entitlements, and federalizing everything from health care to tire pressure.

The War on Terror
We must have the will to win this war. I have had my share of disappointments with President Bush, but we must also give credit where credit is due. The man has protected this nation since we were hit by terrorists on 9/11. And while we’re giving credit where credit is due, let’s remember that, while many are longingly remembering the good ole Clinton days, 9/11 happened because President Clinton ignored the threat posed by radical Islam. That said, I am not one of those who can look back at the decision to liberate Iraq and mis-remember my position at the time. I was all for our going in. Collin Powell gave many reasons for our actions (more than just WMD (which, by the way, we have discovered)), and I was convinced then and remain convinced today that going into Iraq was the right thing to do. President Bush has had the will to do what he thought was right even if it made him unpopular. Neither of his presidential opponents would have. So, I thank him for what he did. My disappointments with President Bush have been on matters secondary to the war.

As for how our options in this election will handle the war, McCain wants to leave Iraq in victory and Obama wants to leave Iraq in a hurry. I’ve been amused by Democrats’ calls to send the military in anywhere in the world to ease pain, suffering, and genocide…except Iraq. If we want to win the war on terror, McCain’s the choice.

Other Random Predictions

• The mid-term elections in 2010 go massively to genuinely conservative Republicans.
• All kinds of things we should have been privy to about Barack Obama are made public if he wins the presidency and everyone decides they made a huge mistake. He is a one-termer.

Final Thoughts
Because of their positions on the above-stated issues, I have a sincere hope to see John McCain and Sarah Palin win tomorrow. They might; they might not.

Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” In the same sense, the cause of conservatism must be refreshed from time to time by defeat when those who take the moniker of Conservative forsake its ideals. Frankly, if the Republican Party is going to be the conservative party, it had better learn to govern conservatively. That means low and fair taxes, limited and restrained government, judicial restraint and originalism, increased liberty, freedom, and personal responsibility, and a respect for natural law. Inasmuch as Republicans choose not to be conservatives, they deserve to be defeated and replaced with persons committed to conservative ideals and with the backbone to believe them, live them, teach them, and fight for them. I don’t ever want to vote for a candidate who tells me how well they can negotiate with the other party. I want candidates who are committed to defeating the tired, old, failed philosophy of the other party.

We’ll see how this election goes.

What we do know is this: Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords regardless of who resides on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Capitol City. Christianity flourished under Nero, and it can flourish under the worst the world can throw at us now. To be brutally honest, a little persecution can sometimes be good for genuine faith. As Christian citizens, we can never give up the fight for influence in the political realm, but we must recommit ourselves to the personal salvation of lost souls. When God changes hearts, He changes motives and ideals. People with changed hearts, motives, and ideals tend to elect better representatives. We look forward to the Government of Christ, of which there will be no end. And we’re thankful that there will always be an end to the government we elect here below.

We’re in the midst of the most hectic part of our year. We just had the church’s 80th anniversary homecoming last week, business is busier than ever, and we have some other obligations that have us swamped. We, however, took a little break tonight to catch the late showing of An American Carol. All I can say is, “Wow!”

The movie is side-splittingly funny; people were still laughing as we exited the theater (not our individual theater, but the entire building). Yet, while being decidedly slapstick throughout, the movie was also beautifully poignant in parts. Some scenes tell profound truths (e.g., the Columbia professors’ musical number and the ACLU undead courtroom scene) with such whimsy that the entire theater was gasping for air from the laughs. And then, at the end, when we see the generations of soldiers standing among the crowd at a concert, it might just invoke a little tear.

The cast, and it was a star-studded one, did a superb job. Extra kudos to Kelsey Grammer for his Patton.

It’s a movie you should definitely see. We need more light-hearted commentary about who and what we are as Americans. This movie will undoubtedly resonate with us real Americans out here in fly-over country. It certainly hit home with me.

The big news today is that the Supreme Court has issued a 5-4 decision bestowing habeas corpus rights on enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The liberal wing of the court has struck down many precedents and shifted more power from the Executive and Legislative branches to the Federal Judiciary.

The best way to get a feel for the errors made in a decision by the liberal half of the court is the read Scalia’s dissent. It proves helpful today, too. You can read it here (scroll way down, begins on page 110). For now, I give you just his conclusion:

The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today. I dissent.

The AP reports via MSNBC:

U.S.-led forces have killed one of the most important leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, a Tunisian believed connected to the kidnapping and killings last summer of American soldiers, a top commander said Friday.

***

Anderson said recent coalition operations also have helped cut in half the previous flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, which had been at about 60 to 80 a month.

He credited the work of the Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement and U.S. teams.

Commanders have said previously that the increase in troops ordered by President Bush in January — and the increased operations that followed — have pushed militants into the remote parts of the north and south of the country. Additional operations have been going after those pockets of fighters.

“We’re having great success in isolating these pockets,” Anderson said.

“They are very broken up, very unable to mass, and conducting very isolated operations,” he said.

He could not estimate the number of foreign fighters in Iraq but said they commit over 80 percent of suicide bombings in the country.

Guess the surge just might be working (read the whole article).