Election Day is rapidly approaching, so if you've received your absentee ballot, just go ahead, vote, and mail it in.

As good friends know, I'm center-right like the country is and John McCain is a natural pick for me. In these trying times, the country needs a steady hand to lead after tumultuous times, not someone who needs on-the-job training. You can have all the aides in the world advising you, but in the end, it's the president's decision and his alone. Even Bill Clinton needed two years as president before he became effective. With 8 years at the state level and a couple of years in the United States Senate, Barack Obama has a limited amount of experience to fall back on and make a decision, the tiniest of which will affect millions of Americans.

I don't agree with everything John McCain has done or promises he will do. During the primaries, the thing that worried me about him was his temper. You can tell he's been showing restraint, but if he was free to speak out in this campaign, you would see a very different John McCain.

Also, he could have chosen a better VP than Sarah Palin. McCain has a history of skin cancer and if it recurs, it puts Palin as the leader of the country, a scary proposition. The thing that allays my fear is that she has more executive experience than McCain, Obama, and Joe Biden combined and that being in the #2 spot will allow her to have on-the-job training, the thing Obama should have first.

McCain's health care proposals sound a little fishy to me, as he's offering a $5,000 tax credit while also taxing employer health plans. And, a try-everything energy policy is great but heavy reliance on nuclear power plants that won't be online until after McCain is out of office isn't the answer.

However, in the most important issues of the day, I'm more in line with McCain's policies. Sunday was the 41st anniversary of when he was shot down in Vietnam, and from that day forward, that has influenced his policies on protecting this country. As a Republican, he doesn't believe in the kind of income redistribution that Obama believes in and focuses on not raising taxes for anybody and promoting policies that create jobs and takes people out of welfare. And as someone who has taken on his own party in order to promote campaign finance reform, immigration reform, and earmark reform, he has the opportunity to promote just enough change to get this country back on the right track.

McCain was right in saying that we should not be scared of an Obama presidency. If that day comes (now becoming more and more likely), we should embrace it with open arms and speak with one voice on how to move this country forward. Obama is one of those once-in-a-lifetime figures that promises to transcend the status quo and govern effectively and efficiently. I just wish he had more experience because the office of the presidency should cap your career in politics, not something to start your career. However, what I am scared about is the prospect of a unified government which promises to turn this country to the left with Nancy Pelosi leading the House with 20-30 more votes this time around and Harry Reid leading a possible supermajority in the Senate.

If there's a silver lining to this outcome, the last time Democrats held the White House, the House, and Senate was after Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. Two years later, Republicans controlled the House and Senate.

In any case, no matter your opinion, November 4 is Election Day. Please make sure to vote.