This post guest-blogged by Jesse Morrison, a writer at Helium.

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When I saw John McCain's sincere, eloquent, and gracious concession speech, it was the first time in this brutal campaign year that I recalled nodding in agreement at anything the Arizona senator had to say.

But the fact is that even as the crews are still cleaning up the confetti from Barack Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park, the Republican party is already regrouping, trying to figure out a way to bring home a win in 2012. So while I appreciate McCain's classy bowing out, here are the ten reasons I didn't vote Republican and am a better person for it.

1. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." My mother, a lifelong urban public school teacher, has had to push back her retirement plans because of the hit her accounts have taken. So now, instead of sipping a hard-earned margarita in her backyard hammock, my mom will be picking gum out of children's hair and grading geography quizzes for years to come.

2. Robocalls. McCain's early appeal lay in the dignity he exuded as a decorated war hero, POW, and respected public official. But as the campaign dragged on, the comments from the McCain camp became increasingly divisive and vitriolic. And when they began placing these creepily baritone, mechanically voiced calls insinuating that Barack Obama was a terrorist, he truly hit a new low.

3. Accusations of Obama's elitism. Barack Obama was raised by a single mother and had to work for everything he got. His is the quintessential American story of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. McCain's is the tired story of upper class privilege. Once we learned couldn't keep track of the number of houses he owned, it was hard to believe that he understood what it was like for those of us who struggle to pay the mortgage on just one.

4. Sarah Palin. $150,000 on clothes and accessories. Troopergate. Russia from her backyard. Absurdly vapid interviews with Katie Couric. "Drill, baby, drill". Creationism. Hypocrisy. Arrogance. Ignorance. Intolerance. This woman said nothing when they screamed, "Off with his head!" at campaign rallies What other atrocities would she silently condone?

5. Joe The Plumber. A symbol of an America that no longer exists. The America of today is more diverse and open-minded than McCain ever believed it to be. He underestimated us.

6. "That one." McCain's performance in the debates painted him as a persnickety old codger who could barely contain his contempt for his young upstart opponent. When Obama beat him, I felt like a school kid who'd just gotten the best of a mean old schoolmarm.

7. It's someone else's turn who's not a card carrying member of the good ol' boys network. And adding a female neoconservative to your ticket doesn't change that image.

8. Iraq. A misguided war that has not made us feel any safer. Bring our troops home. Safe, whole, and alive. Now.

9. Cindy McCain. The plasticity is just plain creepy. Didn't we have enough of the cardboard cutout wife with Laura Bush?

10. Yes we can! This mantra changed the face of politics. It is a younger, more hopeful, more diverse, face. I'll always remember where I was on September 11, 2001 and November 4, 2008, because both dates mark the proudest I have ever been to be an American.