My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.
2009-01-20
A Letter To President Obama
The Honorable Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Obama,
First of all, congratulations on your historic achievement! You ran a surprising and extremely effective campaign, and millions of Americans have invested a great deal of hope in your ability to deliver on your promises.
For what it’s worth, I will be praying for you and for your success as a President. I love this country, and, as a father of three, look forward to being able to tell my children about its greatness. You are uniquely situated to bring people together to solve the big problems this country faces, and I hope you are able to do great things.
I encourage you to learn one of the lessons of Lincoln, and invest your energy and your political capital in big items: fixing the economy and ensuring that the country remains safe. For all you disagree with President Bush about, you must concede that he has managed to prevent another attack on the civilian population in America. Perhaps you don’t agree with his methods, but before you throw out all of his policies, consider that he has kept Americans safe—including my children and your children.
As far as the economy, of course it is your number one priority. But it is nothing new. The country has experienced difficulties like this one before. Please study History; understand what has worked before and what only exacerbated the problems. For instance, there is a reason that the rest of the world refers to the early 1930’s as “The Depression,” and America remembers it as “The Great Depression.” If you can make the difficult decisions, make them wisely, contradict your political allies and opponents alike, then you have a chance for greatness.
I hope you do not allow your Presidency to be derailed by small stuff—things like “Card Check” and forcing Catholic hospitals to offer abortions. I’m not advising that just because I disagree with them; it’s because small stuff like that is both extremely divisive and they force you to invest capital in ways that do not benefit the whole country. I acknowledge that elections have consequences, and you won—you should feel free to pursue your agenda and the agenda of your allies. I just hope you wait until after you’ve taken care of the big ticket items.
I celebrate your historic achievement, and look forward to you making good on your promise to bring people together. You are a very talented man, and I pray that you will be able to use that talent for the good of the entire country. I also pray for your family—as much as you want to and try to, there is no way to prepare them for what’s coming their way.
Godspeed, Mr. President
Michael XXXXXXX
Arvada, CO | |
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