Dear Late Decider:

You're out there, I know, still sitting on the fence. After two years of campaign messages and debates in newsprint and on video, thousands of you remain undecided, biding your time. Like McCain, you're mavericks.

It's an honorable label, though risky, since mavericks are also loose cannons. One and the same.

Example: Before the GOP Convention, hard-core Republicans struggled with McCain. The GOP base grew enthusiastic only after he introduced Sarah Palin at the Convention. Before the sassy Alaskey, McCain was just another in a field of barely-electables. But support for Palin didn't grow much beyond that base. She was a loose cannon maverick choice. Good for the base, bad for the election of their candidate.

To your credit, you are not one-issue voters, like the anti-abortion crowd, who will vote for M/P regardless of other issues. They made up their mind months ago. But that's like buying a car without tires because it gets great mileage. Good for you for avoiding that trap.

Nor are you necessarily cynics, though with so many voters willing to believe anything, cynicism seems warranted. Obama a Muslim? Ignorance stalks the land.

So you're careful, and concerned, and undecided. But now it's time, mavericks. Come Tuesday, you're going to have to jump off that fence.

Which way?

Consider: Dozens of prominent, thoughtful conservatives have endorsed Obama outright. Or they have openly criticized McCain to the point where they can't possibly be voting for him.

There's Jim Leach, Iowa's respected former Republican congressman, who spoke out in a broadcast interview: "I am convinced that the national interest of the United States is very much in jeopardy at this time and not to reassess, not to redirect would be a major problem that would have ramifications for decades to come . . .. We do need a new direction in American policy, and Obama has a sense of that. He recognizes that a long-term occupation of Iraq is not only expensive, it's extremely dangerous to the American interests."

Or Kathleen Parker, a widely read conservative columnist, who wrote in the flagship conservative journal, the National Review: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself." Just last Monday she wrote in the Courier that McCain probably selected her because he was "smitten" with her, not because he knew anything about her knowledge of issues.

And Christopher Buckley, son of William, founder of modern conservatism, who wrote: "Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It's a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They'd cut off my allowance."

He goes on: "This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget 'by the end of my first term.' Who, really, believes that?"

Then there's Scott McClellan, Former Press Secretary to President George W. Bush, wrote that "From the beginning I have said I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done and I will be voting for Barack Obama."

And Colin Powell, who explained patiently and eloquently on "Meet the Press" two weeks ago, McCain's choice of Sarah Palin reveals a lack of judgment. Powell asserted, "I don't believe she's ready to be president."

For Powell, Obama "has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world- onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

See his full and powerful statement on "Meet the Press" at MSNBC.com.

If you need more than that, Google "Republicans for Obama" for a list of well-respected Republicans who have decided to put their country before their Party.

So, undecideds, get out there and vote for Obama. But don't do it because liberal Democrats say so. Do it because so many prominent conservative Republicans agree with them.