I’M gambling Sen. Barack Obama is now President-elect Obama. So at the risk of my own “Dewey defeats Truman” moment, I’m rolling the bones the polls have played out and Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.

I voted for him, which surprises me every bit as much as it may surprise you. Obama is the first Democrat I’ve ever voted for for president. He is also the most liberal candidate for any office I’ve ever voted for.

There is a pendulum to American history that swings from left to right and back again. The conservative revolution, born in the pages of William F. Buckley’s magazine in 1955, hardened in the Goldwater defeat of ‘64, to reach its peak in the Reagan ’80s, has finally exhausted its momentum and the pendulum is swinging to the left.

How long and how successfully the Obama era will be is up to the talents of the new president, the willingness of all Americans to give him a chance, and the continued grace of God who has blessed this country for nearly two and half centuries.

This was a very difficult decision. Despite the cartoonish portrayals of John McCain as a dangerous religious-right-loving warmonger who also happens to be a doddering, senile, computer-illiterate old coot; and Barack Obama as the crypto-Commie, Kwaanza-celebrating, flag-burning, bastard son of Malcolm X, al-Qaida Manchurian candidate, both men are honorable and decent and love their country, albeit in very different ways. And while neither of these two men would be my first (or even 50th) choice, I chose to vote for Obama. Here’s why.

The Republican Party did not deserve to win. I believe in accountability.

For nearly my entire life, the Republican Party asked America to give it control of the government and it would get government “off our backs.” For six of the last eight years, the GOP had the White House, Senate, House of Representatives and a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court. The result was a war in Iraq we did not need, a gigantic increase in the size of government, the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, massive deficits and the nationalization of home mortgages and the banking industry, and I could keep going for the rest of this column.

The Republican Party has punted away any claim to the party of fiscal responsibility and limited government. They have trotted out the memory of Ronald Reagan while governing like Lyndon Johnson – an activist foreign policy with an enormously intrusive domestic agenda.

Sometimes you vote with your head, sometimes you vote your heart. I voted with a queasy stomach – the kind of nervous butterflies I feel at the $25 table in Vegas. Everyone knows the odds at every table are the same, but when you’ve busted eight hands straight, you pick up your chips and give the new table a try. America decided to sit at the Democrats’ table. Obama is the new dealer.

Obama has promised to be a “uniter” – he can’t unite the country if he governs from deep left field. The challenges facing the 44th president are enormous. Every American should be deeply invested in his success.

And that’s equally true if McCain is president-elect. However, if that’s the case, I’ll thank you for the courtesy of quietly stuffing this column in the litter box.