An Open Letter to President Barack Obama

Sept. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- Dear President Obama,
Can we talk?  (And by that I mean a two way exchange.  This could be a great opportunity for you to clear the air and rally the “troops,” so to speak.)

I followed with great interest your May 1 commencement speech at the University of Michigan.  While there are those who interpreted your remarks as suggesting that you feel you are above criticism, I want to believe and support you and I take you at your literal word, that you have no quarrel with dignified, restrained commentary.  I hope you will receive this letter in the good spirit in which it is offered.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, delivering the keynote address at a recent tea party convention, was heard to say “How’s that hopey, changey stuff working out for you?”  Not so respectful, but we should all be able to handle a bit of lightheartedness.

All that “hopey, changey” stuff has not been working so well for me.  Please understand, I’ve been a registered Democrat for almost half a century.  I voted for you with great enthusiasm, optimism and hope.

However, I feel like you have let me down.  It’s unlikely that I will vote for you the next time around, but hope springs eternal that you will regain my confidence, as well as the confidence of millions of Americans who, like me, have lost their faith in you.
We voted for you because you promised “change.”  And “change” was needed.  We voted for you to be the leader of a new dawn.  We took you at your word.  We believed you.  We wanted to believe you.  So far, what we received is just a same ‘ol, same ‘ol political rhetoric and sound bites.  No change there whatsoever.  So far, we feel you’ve let us down.  But it’s not too late for you to listen—and “change.”  (How ironic to feel the need, respectfully, to talk to you about “change”.)

First and foremost, for me, you have placed your integrity and credibility in question—all but destroying the opportunity for you to be one of the greatest and most effective U.S Presidents of all time.  During the election, you were accused of long term relationships with several radical personalities who harbored extreme anti-American sentiments, outright hatred for the U.S.  One of those persons was the leader of a church you attended for over 20 years.  When you stated that you never heard that person to utter an anti-American sentiment in all those years, I found that hard to believe, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt.  I believed you.  I wanted to believe you.

Then I watched your “at all costs” behavior in pushing through your health care legislation.  And it was “at all costs.”  Your pork barrel, arm twisting reported behavior in securing the necessary vote of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson was politics at its ugliest.

Medical coverage for those who can’t otherwise afford it is of course noble, but at what price, to your integrity, and the economy, and will it really work?  Apparently, you believe that taxing the rich is a bottomless pit that will pay for it, and make it work, but economic studies convincingly demonstrate that when tax rates are raised enough, the rich respond by slowing down, to the point where tax revenues actually decline.  (This is simple economics.  Sell 100 hot dogs at $1 apiece and you collect $100.  Raise the price to $10 apiece and you could collect $1,000, but if only five people are willing to buy a $10 hot dog, you only collect $50.) What then, Mr. President?

Have you sold out your integrity for a system so likely to fail?  Why would a smart man like you who clearly understands the economics do that?  Was it ego that made you do it, the need to win at any cost?  Was it revolutionary zeal, part of a broader objective to “redistribute the wealth,” as many assert?  Or was it just politics at its worst, chasing the low income vote that so greatly outnumbers the high income vote?  I certainly don’t know, but it doesn’t look or feel right.

I know you’re busy, Mr. President.  Let’s take just a few more, quick examples:
How long were you in office before your administration finally got around to taking on Goldman Sachs (referred to by many as “Government” Sachs)?  Failure to take on Wall Street doesn’t feel much like “change” to me.

Now, you’re thinking of bringing criminal charges against British Petroleum over the Gulf oil spill.  Where was your regulation of the oil industry during your first year in office, when “change” then might have prevented the oil spill?  (You know the story about the nice fellow who picked up the ailing snake by the side of the road and nursed it back to health, only then to receive a deadly bite on the snake’s recovery.  As he lay there dying, the man asked the snake “Why would you do this to me after I saved your life?”  “Because,” answered the snake, “that’s what snakes do.”)  Under pressure for doing too little, too late, you so irresponsibly froze offshore drilling—chilling the Gulf economy even further—that a court of law overruled your actions as unreasonable.  Mr. President, whether true or not, you seem like you’re flailing.  You are wearing out people’s confidence in you.  Not good, Mr. President.

Then you have your Attorney General threaten to sue the State of Arizona over its immigration law before he even bothered reading the law—how embarrassing, Mr. President.  Did you happen to catch the YouTube video of Mr. Holder looking the fool when he had to admit that?  The Arizona law appears to be no more aggressive than the unenforced federal immigration law that sits idly on the books.  Given the potential for terrorist abuse of weaknesses in U.S. immigration practice, wouldn’t American interests be better served by enforcement of U.S. immigration law rather than feebly attacking Arizona for merely doing what your administration is failing to do?  Could it be that your party is reluctant to tackle a possibly unpopular task in an election year?  Doesn’t feel like “change” to me, Mr. President.

Not long ago, that when a dispute arose over an event of possible racial profiling, you invited the actors over to the White House to work it out with you over a couple of beers.  Nice touch.  Good press.  Like the beers, that was really cool.  That was the kind of President I wanted and thought I was voting for, even if you maybe leaped  a bit before you looked in that instance.

It’s not too late for you to right this ship, Mr. President, and to be the President I and a lot of other Americans thought we were voting for.  But the clock is ticking.  If you don’t change, and soon, it will be too late, and we’ll soon have to be voting for another presidential candidate who will bring change.  It’s really painful to find that a vote for “change” might become a vote against you!

You know how to reach me, Mr. President. Let’s get together and work this out–soon.  Don’t dawdle.  Your place or mine?  Whichever you prefer.  And I’ll bring the beer.

Respectfully and loyally yours,
Steve Kessler

P.S.  On second thought, I better come to you. I’m at my home out west for the summer.   It’ll be a lot cheaper for “we the people” than if you come to me.  (I understand you travel with a pretty huge entourage, something like a staff of 500 to your first G-20 trip to Europe.)

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