It's important to remind our leadership that our support is conditional, and contingent upon performance. We have had eight years to savor the burn of leadership that could not care less about such "intangibles" as honoring promises or even living up to the most minimal expectations. That's why I made this shirt template. YOUR reasons go into the design. Wear it (or your own design) often, so that everyone knows that your support is conditional on performance.
I support Obama, but in doing so, I intend to hold him to a much higher standard than I applied to George Bush or, for that matter, Bill Clinton. Frankly, we haven't had our eyes on the ball since Ronnie Ray-Gun took office.
I happen to think that Obama can live up to high expectations. But I also expect him to understand that in any area in which he feels less than totally sure of himself - he has a telephone. He should pick it up and call a citizen in whom he does have confidence due to evident competence. In other words, Sir; we are Citizens. And it is both the honor and the duty of a Citizen to serve at the pleasure of the President, regardless of their politics. Or it should be.
I do not shill for myself. There damn well ought to be a long list of more obvious choices, in and out of political life. And that, Sir, is my point.
Presume, Sir, that you have not just the right, but the duty to lead as broad a mandate as possible, and to continue to broaden it pro-actively for as long as you have the privilege to shape this nation.
You are the Democratic nominee for sure, and the outcome of the floor fight 'twixt Ron Paul and John McCain is going to be interesting, but the ultimate outcome isn't in doubt. I suggest very strongly to you that Ron Paul himself and those of the Ron Paul Revolution have earned a place in history as significant as your own.
Forcing Principle and Reason upon Republicans, one nickel and one hand-painted banner at a time, in service to the Constitutional principles you will be pledging to uphold - Sir, I think that deserves acknowledgment.
At the very least, I very much hope you will be insisting on him being included in any candidate debates for as long as he is still a candidate - whatever the other side may feel about it. It would be great politics - but aside from that, people might actually watch the debate and learn something from it.
Indeed, I think he (and a great many of the citizen-activists behind him) should be on the very top of that pile I mentioned earlier.
Let's get down to specifics. I support you, Barack Hussein Obama for President. Why?
That hurt to watch, even given the mercifully brief excerpts between the stunned honesty of pundit reactions. I've seen more of the actual speech, and I have to honestly say - the editing was not unfair to McCain.
Quentin Tarantio could not have come up with a good cut of that speech. And the content - "Change is Scary," delivered to a roomful of senior citizens in Louisiana - well, clearly, the professionals are sitting this election out. Change may be scary - but only if the way things are remains tolerable. Bet there weren't many supporters there from the Big Easy.
The "heir apparent" to Bush's "legacy" is no better at expressing and projecting his ideas in a compelling manner and persuading a tough room that he's worth supporting in his endeavors than was Bush. No - though it pains me to say this - he's not as good as Bush. He has a marginally better command of English, and at least he's not too proud to pretend he doesn't need a teleprompter, but, on his best day ever, Ronald Regan couldn't have made that reeking pile of crap work, and even Bush would have asked for a do-over.
Mercifully; I now have a positive choice running against a positively idiotic choice instead of a duel between mediocrities.
Barack, we are all fortunate that you had the chance to prove yourself against a truly remarkable slate of competing positive choices, coming down to the wire in a down and dirty slugfest with Hillary.
Our Republican friends had to decide, really, which candidate would be the least embarrassing representative for a carpetbag filled with broken promises and the reeking tissues used to mop up the aftermath of Imperial fantasies. Since Ron Paul wan't going to carry that sack of shit, they simply ignored him and are still ignoring him - even though he's the least worst choice.
Coulda been worse. Could have been Romney. But he and every other alternative stood for something - and whatever something you picked, it was intolerable to some other "core constituency."So they settled on the candidate who somehow managed to be least offensive to the fewest members of the Coalition of the Damned.
I used to respect John McCain a great deal. But I'm afraid that he's lost his way; while politics is the art of compromise, it is not supposed to be the art of compromising one's principles to the end of gaining power.
He's now forthright for torture and supports the police state tactics that the Bush Cabal desires - most lately endorsing warrantless wiretapping "In this time of war." A "war" will last just as long as needed to justify the "emergency procedures" Karl Rove desires.
Whatever the orthodoxy of the Republican Party thinks, whatever their media machine believes, McCain's actual chance of winning an even somewhat honest election at this point, with the Bush Albatross around his neck and a ringing promise of a hundred more years of war in the middle east if that's what it takes to "win" is that of a urinal puck in a Texas Honky-Tonk.
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