Dear President Obama
What you experienced and understood (hopefully) from this weeks coup de tat is usually referred to as "The Two by Four" approach. It is generally used when all else has failed and desperation reigns. It appears to me that all but Nancy Pelosi got the "message." As you now fully understand, Nancy marches to her own drummer, regardless of the entire band and even the musical director! I wouldn't call the far left's agenda your Achilles tendon. It is much more like two torn ACL's combined with a severe groin injury....sustained at the same time as your concussion. (excuse the sports reference, but it's super bowl season)
Given that we are all in this together it is certainly time to take pause, at least long enough to fully understand the situation. One could say that your canoe was heading for the waterfall. It is a fact that "the river" you were on was of your choosing. I ask you this... It it wise to immediately change canoes and continue down the same river? Changing from health care reform to your other liberal agenda items is not going to fool anyone. It may put socialistic ideas back 50 years though.
I don't think 3 days is sufficient to analyze your predicament, and since the message came from (70% Democrat) Massachusetts, there is absolutely no point in a Town Meeting in Ohio. Just my thoughts.
I am not certain your advisors have told you yet, but the campaign is over. The honeymoon is over. You may be presiding over the most amazing election in our history, a mandate from the people, as well as the fastest request for a mulligan in history.
You have gone from a 70% approval rating to 50% in record time. Your approval rating had dropped much, much faster than George Bush's, your personal scapegoat.
My primary question is this... What do you want your legacy to be? How will history view you, your decisions, your policies and your effectiveness? In my opinion, right now history will view you as someone who turned your 15 minutes of fame into a TOTAL DISASTER in record time. I certainly don't want to hear MLK's "I HAVE A DREAM" turned into "The Dream became a Nightmare."
As an academic, study the situation. Understand how to recover the economy. Infrastructure has an useful life of roughly 50 years. The average age of our bridges, roads etc is 46 years. The new job tax credit you said you were for was a good idea. There has NEVER BEEN a better time for PAYGO. And paygo doesn't mean offsets from phantom savings, such as medicare fraud. Allowing health insurance to be purchased over state lines works for auto insurance? Tort reform doesn't "COST" anything. You have a plethora of great options in front of you.
As an academic, study Ronald Regan. He took the disaster of President Carter and turned things around. President Regan LEFT OFFICE with an approval rating that rivals your initial ratings.
At this point, you should have a pretty good handle on what isn't going to work. You have an incredible opportunity ahead of you. For all our sakes, I hope you listen, learn and seize the opportunity.
Rip Lonergan
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