Thank God It's Republican Friday (TGIRF)!

MoveOn ad features pro-Obama Republican

John Weiler is a Southern California police detective, a Republican, an Air Force veteran and self-described conservative. He is starring in a television commercial in support of Barack Obama. Weiler, 43, stepped into his moment of fame because he didn't want his pregnant wife to attend an Obama volunteers meeting last fall by herself:

She's a Democrat; I'm a Republican. It makes for a fun marriage.

He said he was open to aspects of Obama's message that matched his own — moving away from divisive politics, opposition to the war in Iraq, and support for veterans. After the volunteers meeting, he said, he began to pay closer attention, listening to Obama's ads and watching him in debates. Weiler says in his own ad,

I'm a veteran, I served under President Ronald Reagan and under the first President Bush. I've been a Republican since before I could actually vote. We need somebody in the White House that is strong. We need somebody who's gonna represent the left and the right, the Democrat and the Republican, everybody. I'm a lifelong Republican and I'm voting for Barack Obama.

He served in the Air Force from 1983 to 1989, leaving the service as a staff sergeant. He said he has two nephews in the Air Force and one nephew attending Army tanker school and has grown to oppose the war in Iraq.

We need to get out. We're not going to settle the problems that the country has. ... They've been fighting like that for thousands of years and a couple of months of American occupation is not going to change an entire life of political and religious views.

The Root