I fall into the percentage of people who made up their minds on who they were voting for a long time ago. When it became exceedingly clear that John McCain was the Republican nominee for President I threw my full support behind him. Not because I’ve grown up a Conservative Republican or a knee jerk reaction to tow the party line but because as the clear winner of the nomination, McCain is better equipped and experienced to lead this greatest nation through seemingly insurmountable odds than Barack Obama [and Hilary Clinton at the time] could. Insurmountable odds ranging from terrorism, to war, to rogue nations, to the economy, to energy independence and in turn allowing America to continue in freedom, liberty, and prosperity.

It will take nothing less than a miracle for me to change my vote. It is set in stone, inscribed in steel. After me and others like me, there is a percentage of people who make up their mind of who they are going to vote for between the nomination on up through to the end of the party convention. This makes up the majority of voters and I presume it is hard to change the minds of these voters to switch candidates. Now is the time when the campaigns are not trying to sway us so much as they are trying to sway those that are undecided. According to the ANES, American National Elections Studies, since 1948 to 2004 an average of 19.4% decide post convention, an average of 12.3% decide in the final two weeks, and an average of 4.8% decide on election day. In general, ’04 was even below the average.

Both campaigns are trying to reach these undecided voters through different means, one of which is asking help from us in volunteering to fill phone banks and talk to friends and strangers telling them why we are voting for [in our case] McCain.

How do we go about telling others why we support and are voting for McCain? I’ve spent the last several days poring over articles written by or linked from primarily Patrick Ruffini and David All [found in various locations]. It has been a confirmation of what I and others in the Republican party have noticed and have been frustrated about for some time and that is Democrats have been more adept at spreading their message across utilizing new mainstream/cutting edge technology. Using technology to get our message across is something we Republicans need to start tapping in to.

I think I’ve found a way that we can tell our personal reasons why we are supporting and voting for McCain/Palin that can far outreach our neighborhoods and cities, reaching the nation and trickling past our borders. A grassroots ad campaign starring regular Americans like us saying why we are for McCain/Palin. It would be through a little service called 12seconds.tv. What is 12seconds? Think twitter with video, where you upload a video but are limited to 12 seconds.

How would this work? Details can be found at the 12sec.R.ads website but as a quick run through: Record a 12 second video saying why you support the McCain/Palin ticket, e-mail to 12sec.R.ads, follow the 12sec.R.ads channel, and add @12secRads on twitter. Record and send in as many as you would like. If you can say why you are voting for McCain/Palin in 12 seconds, you can have your own ad in support.

You can always try requesting an invite from 12seconds.tv to create your own channel. Any videos that you upload that you would like to be an ad in support for McCain/Palin be sure to include in the tag or description “12secRad”.

I’d like to thank techRepublican for providing the exposure for this endeavor because as described in “How to Get On-Air, All the Time” by Patrick Gavin in Politics Magazine, techRepublican is “…a site dedicated to helping conservatives utilize Internet technology and opportunities…”.

Thank you for the opportunity.