This is a special message to my fellow Americans, specifically those seventy-eight million of you who still support the current President, George W. Bush. Because there comes a time in everyone’s life when everyone must admit they were wrong. For myself, that time came on August 17th, 1998.

In 1996, I voted to re-elect Bill Clinton. I didn’t disliked Bob Dole. He seemed like a fine, upstanding, moderate sort of guy. I just felt that Clinton was doing a good job, and saw no reason to change the guard. Later, when scandal broke and he denied his sexual liaisons, I stood by him, telling people that I believed him. That I believed in him.

But I was wrong. Not about some affair with an intern. That sort of thing is very personal and hadn’t much to do with the job I help hire him to do. But when Clinton admitted he had lied, he had, by proxy, made a liar out of me. Then, to make matters worse, he had to go and lob a couple bombs into Afghanistan and Sudan—a piss-poor attempt to divert people’s attention from his failures. All in all, bad show.

It hurt at the time, but I swallowed my pride and admitted I was wrong. Since then, enough water has passed under the bridge that I no longer feel the sting of this admission. I promise it will be like that for you one day, especially if you get started now.

Because right now there’s a trend among us Americans, especially stead-fast Republicans, to admit they were wrong about President Bush. Wrong about his war, his economic policies, his stance on global warming, and his inaction about our economy. Hell, wrong about his whole presidency from day one. His popularity has slipped, plummeting to record-breaking lows as more and more people are changing their minds about the man on Pennsylvania Avenue.

But there are still so many of you who refuse to jump on this bandwagon.

I can’t know what your reasons are. Perhaps you still believe in Bush’s character, in his ideas and his straight-forward way of discussing them. Perhaps your trust lies in another man, a local figure in your life who still believes. Perhaps you’re just as stubborn as a river in Oregon. As I said, I can’t know your reasons.

All I can know is that the time has come for you to join me and so many of your fellow citizens in admission that you have incorrectly judged a man. It’s not such a big deal. We’ve all bore this shame, and kept our pride intact.

I might even argue that at this point, pride-wise, you have more to lose by staying the course.