I hate to admit it. My liberal Democrat friends were correct. They told me if I voted for McCain all sorts of bad things would happen.  Well, I ignored their advice and voted for McCain – and they were right.

They told me if I voted for McCain the nation's hope would deteriorate – and sure enough there has been a 20 point drop in the Consumer Confidence Index since the election, reaching a lower point than any time during the Bush administration.

They told me if I voted for McCain the U.S. would become more deeply embroiled in the Middle East – and sure enough tens of thousands of additional troops are scheduled to be deployed into Afghanistan.

They told me if I voted for McCain the economy would get worse – and sure enough, unemployment is approaching 8.8 per cent and the President’s many gloom and doom announcements and the new stimulus packages have sent the stock market lower than at any time since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

They told me if I voted for McCain we would see more “crooks” in high ranking positions in the federal government – and sure enough, several recent cabinet nominees revealed resumes of bribery, immigration violations, and tax fraud or tax evasion.

They told me if I voted for McCain our relations with foreign countries would worsen – and sure enough China has questioned investing in more US treasuries, France and Germany have rejected our President’s suggestions that they spend more money to save the world economy, Russia has apparently forced us to abandon our defense missile programs in Poland and Czech Republic, we snubbed and embarrassed Great Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he visited Washington (and sent him packing with a bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office and a box of DVDs that won’t even play on machines in England), the State Department shuffled the visit of the president of Brazil to avoid a conflict with St. Patrick’s Day (and spelled his

name wrong in the official announcement), the President scuttled the pending free trade agreement with Colombia (an important ally that borders Chavez’s Venezuela), Mexico imposed tariffs on $2.4 billion of American products in retaliation for our breach of the North America Free Trade Agreement, and Iran is getting ever close to making a nuclear bomb. It's a good thing we're chumming up to Syria and Hamas.

They told me if I voted for McCain the moguls of industry would increase their salaries and bonuses at the expense of the little people – and sure enough, companies like Merrill Lynch and AIG and Fannie Mae have used the bailout money to pay record bonuses to the very executives who drove those companies into the ground. Not only that, AIG has used the bail-out money to subsidize price cuts that undercut its competition, ensuring that the company that is “too big to fail” will get even bigger.

They told me I if I voted for McCain that innocent children would die – and sure enough, the President has lifted the ban on federal funding of abortion and the ban on using federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells, so many more innocent children will die.

They told me if I voted for McCain the civil rights of Americans would be put in jeopardy – and sure enough, Congress is about to pass the misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” which will deprive workers of the secret ballot in union elections. Oh, and the President wants to institute forced participation in a civilian national security force to spy on Americans.

Well, I ignored my Democrat friends in November and voted for McCain. And they were right… all of their predictions have come true.