Dear Mr. Obama:
I listened to the 'debate' held in Pennsylvania, hosted by ABC and conducted by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, on Wednesday evening.
I read several media responses Thursday morning to that event. The Washington Post was most stirring in the attack on Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos.
The main line of attack has been - they spent 50+ minutes playing gotcha and reciting a litany of old and tired issues. You pointed out in a speech the next day that you just wanted to address issues that were and are relevant to the American people while these sorts just want to play gotcha, politics of old.
You want change, you want a new discussion, new discourse - dialog and bipartisan efforts to do the work of the American people.
Admirable Mr. Obama, except you are reframing the argument and doing so dare I say dishonestly.
What is your complaint, if I may summarize, with Bush and Clinton - politics as usual, lies, cronyism, corruption, incompetence, closed-off from new ideas, cemented to the politics of old - religion, guns, division - where excuses pass for explanations and no one is accountable. Where no one is grown up and that when you walk in to the White House on January 20, you will need to clean it out.
Do you realize Mr. Obama how condescending, belittling, hateful, and spurious the claims are and how they resemble the politics of old, just as you condemn, you have become.
You claim that Bush is tainted by the cronyism, the guilt by association - yet you associated with a man who actively sought the overthrow of the US government and used terroristic methods to achieve that end. That is important to the American people.
You claimed that your faith was your rock and the man who led your faith was your mentor and friend - his comments and attitudes clearly anti-American. That is important to the American people.
Your friend, the man involved in your acquisition of your home, in court - charges as serious as any against anyone in the government or out - from bribery and corruption to tax evasion.
Why Mr. Obama is it not important to look at these issues when it is perfectly ok for you to raise the same form of question against Clinton and Bush.
It is not that you have already addressed the issues. You very reluctantly realized you had no choice on a few of the above issues, and addressed them in very carefully parsed terms (reminiscent of Bill and his definition of 'is').
Mr. Obama, the fact that a few thousand people at each speech you hold, all Democrats or liberals - just because they cheer you on when you call Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos and Clinton names, doesn't mean that the issues raised are not important to a vast majority of Americans as a meter to measure your character. You misread the fact that democrats don't care with the fact that most Americans do.
For example: 50% are Democrat and 50% are Republican or at the very least close. Of the 50% who are Democrats, most support you, BUT many do not and they care about these questions. The other 50% also care. At least 70% of the country cares Mr. Obama.
You don't get to make simplistic statements about not raising taxes on people who earn $200,000, yet in the same breath, tell us you will raise, nearly doubling to 28% – the current top capital gains tax rate of 15%, which would in fact be a tax hike on some 100 million Americans - MOST of whom early less than $200,000. That great middle class you want to help so badly who is bitter and disenfranchised, would be even more bitter with a doubling of the capital gains tax
Mr. Obama, you have great potential, and I believe offer a great deal, but you are not a force for change. You are simply reinventing the old, relabeling politics of old and calling it by a different name. You still employ cronyism and obfuscation in your life. Sir, you do not have the character to be The President of these United States.
Stay in the U.S. Senate, work for change, do good, live a good life, avoid terrorists, criminal, corrupt and hateful people. You can do a great deal, but it will not be in the White House.
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