An open letter to President Obama:<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are so thirsty for real leadership they will crawl across the desert for it and when they find out it\u2019s a mirage they will drink the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ought to needlepoint that quote on a pillow for the Oval Office for you. You campaigned on hope, to people who wanted meaningful change.<\/p>\n
You said that you wanted health CARE reform, not health insurance mandates, but when the time came to articulate to Congress what you wanted to see in the draft bills, you took a back seat and let the two chambers come up with incompatible bills. For goodness sake, you let Sen. Max Baucus take the lead on the Senate bill and dawdle for months. Mr. President, it was supposed to be YOUR vision for health care reform, not his. Max Baucus isn\u2019t our president, you are.<\/span><\/p>\nNow, after having promised to restore the independence of the U.S. Department of Justice, you are not supporting the U.S. Attorney General\u2019s decision to hold the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the federal courthouse in Manhattan, close to Ground Zero. This despite the fact that the U.S. Marshall\u2019s Service \u2014 guys who will be putting their own lives on the line moving this prisoner around \u2014 have determined that the SDNY courthouse is the safest place to hold the trial.<\/p>\nInstead, you have non-lawyers and non-marshals at the White House running around infecting this decision with tawdry politics. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel isn\u2019t president, you are.<\/p>\nAnd if you want to close Guantanamo, do it. \u00a0And do it faster than Sen. Lindsey Graham can pass his \u201cstrip the money\u201d legislation. Once it\u2019s a\u00a0fait accompli<\/em>, it will be too late to deny funding. \u00a0Allowing Graham to dictate whether or not civilian trials can be held is nothing short of non feasance in office on your part. Lindsey Graham is not the president, you are.<\/p>\nThe list goes on and on. During the campaign, you laid out a whole series of policy initiatives. People didn\u2019t elect you because they liked YOU; they elected you because they liked the policies you were proposing.\u00a0 I assume that you actually thought about those policies and decided you actually liked them before campaigning on them. Mr. President, you must support your own decisions.<\/p>\nAnyone who has ever read this blog knows that I have\u00a0no love for George W. Bush. In his entire presidency, he only got one thing right. He knew how to be decisive. Right or wrong, once he decided to do a thing, he didn\u2019t let anyone or anything get in his way (until his wrong decisions got overturned in court). I\u2018m not suggesting that you go off half-cocked, or that you make every single thing a \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d contest; but there are some things important enough to fight for.<\/p>\nIn your case, it might not even take a \u201cfight.\u201d Just a “get out in front of the crowd, point in the direction you want to go and march toward the goal” kind of leadership. You have a golden tongue, and the post-presidential campaign activist group Organizing for America has an email list of millions.<\/p>\nIf you want real health care (not health insurance) reform, scrap the piece of **** bill in the Senate and go tell them what you want to see in a new bill. If you have to roll up your sleeves and get out a pencil and help the write it, then maybe you should do that. Think it\u2019s too risky? You could not fail on health care more than you already are.<\/p>\nYou want to restore American rule of law and the international prestige that comes with that? You go to New York City, put up a sound stage in Foley Square and tell the people why it is legally and morally necessary to hold the KSM trial there and that, no matter the nay saying of cowards back in Washington, you will act upon the expertise of the lawyers of the Justice Department and the lawyers of the Department of Defense and the security experts of the U.S. Marshal\u2019s Service. These people are experts in their fields, and the president should not only be able to rely upon that expertise, but should also publicly endorse that expertise.<\/p>\nI know you get accused of not being tough on terror, but I think the polling that trends that way has less to do with your terror policies, than with the incredible timidity and excessive deference you keep showing towards Congress. Look, the Constitution gives Congress enormous power; they don\u2019t need help from you in holding or wielding power. However, the\u00a0people<\/strong> of this country elected YOU president. You don\u2019t need permission from Congress to be a president, you already are the president.<\/p>\nThe people are looking to you to lead; to toughen up and go out there and do the things you promised on the campaign trail. In the absence of real leadership, the populist anger out there can be co-opted by the likes of Dick Army, who\u2019s trying to manipulate the tea party movement, or even by a grifter like Sarah Palin. Talk about a mirage of leadership — sheez!<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t angry with Democrats because they failed to pass a health care bill. People are angry with Democrats because they came up with something which they had the nerve to call a health care bill, that was really giant piece of corporate welfare that would do little to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t mad at Democrats just because they continued the bail out of Wall Street, they are mad that the bailout came with almost no strings attached, and with no regulatory reform.<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t mad because you have proposed unqualified or outrageous nominees ( you didn’t) , they are mad because you have allowed those nominees to wither on the vine for months, while the important work they are supposed to be doing, goes undone. Yeah, I\u2019m talking about DOJ Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen right now, too. You have that recess appointment power for a reason.<\/p>\nThe people of this country elected you to lead them. It\u2019s time to toughen up and get to the leading part.<\/p>\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An open letter to President Obama: \u201cPeople are so thirsty for real leadership they will crawl across the desert for it and when they find out it\u2019s a mirage they will drink the sand.\u201d I ought to needlepoint that quote on a pillow for the Oval Office for you. You campaigned on hope, to people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Now, after having promised to restore the independence of the U.S. Department of Justice, you are not supporting the U.S. Attorney General\u2019s decision to hold the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the federal courthouse in Manhattan, close to Ground Zero. This despite the fact that the U.S. Marshall\u2019s Service \u2014 guys who will be putting their own lives on the line moving this prisoner around \u2014 have determined that the SDNY courthouse is the safest place to hold the trial.<\/p>\n
Instead, you have non-lawyers and non-marshals at the White House running around infecting this decision with tawdry politics. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel isn\u2019t president, you are.<\/p>\n
And if you want to close Guantanamo, do it. \u00a0And do it faster than Sen. Lindsey Graham can pass his \u201cstrip the money\u201d legislation. Once it\u2019s a\u00a0fait accompli<\/em>, it will be too late to deny funding. \u00a0Allowing Graham to dictate whether or not civilian trials can be held is nothing short of non feasance in office on your part. Lindsey Graham is not the president, you are.<\/p>\nThe list goes on and on. During the campaign, you laid out a whole series of policy initiatives. People didn\u2019t elect you because they liked YOU; they elected you because they liked the policies you were proposing.\u00a0 I assume that you actually thought about those policies and decided you actually liked them before campaigning on them. Mr. President, you must support your own decisions.<\/p>\nAnyone who has ever read this blog knows that I have\u00a0no love for George W. Bush. In his entire presidency, he only got one thing right. He knew how to be decisive. Right or wrong, once he decided to do a thing, he didn\u2019t let anyone or anything get in his way (until his wrong decisions got overturned in court). I\u2018m not suggesting that you go off half-cocked, or that you make every single thing a \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d contest; but there are some things important enough to fight for.<\/p>\nIn your case, it might not even take a \u201cfight.\u201d Just a “get out in front of the crowd, point in the direction you want to go and march toward the goal” kind of leadership. You have a golden tongue, and the post-presidential campaign activist group Organizing for America has an email list of millions.<\/p>\nIf you want real health care (not health insurance) reform, scrap the piece of **** bill in the Senate and go tell them what you want to see in a new bill. If you have to roll up your sleeves and get out a pencil and help the write it, then maybe you should do that. Think it\u2019s too risky? You could not fail on health care more than you already are.<\/p>\nYou want to restore American rule of law and the international prestige that comes with that? You go to New York City, put up a sound stage in Foley Square and tell the people why it is legally and morally necessary to hold the KSM trial there and that, no matter the nay saying of cowards back in Washington, you will act upon the expertise of the lawyers of the Justice Department and the lawyers of the Department of Defense and the security experts of the U.S. Marshal\u2019s Service. These people are experts in their fields, and the president should not only be able to rely upon that expertise, but should also publicly endorse that expertise.<\/p>\nI know you get accused of not being tough on terror, but I think the polling that trends that way has less to do with your terror policies, than with the incredible timidity and excessive deference you keep showing towards Congress. Look, the Constitution gives Congress enormous power; they don\u2019t need help from you in holding or wielding power. However, the\u00a0people<\/strong> of this country elected YOU president. You don\u2019t need permission from Congress to be a president, you already are the president.<\/p>\nThe people are looking to you to lead; to toughen up and go out there and do the things you promised on the campaign trail. In the absence of real leadership, the populist anger out there can be co-opted by the likes of Dick Army, who\u2019s trying to manipulate the tea party movement, or even by a grifter like Sarah Palin. Talk about a mirage of leadership — sheez!<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t angry with Democrats because they failed to pass a health care bill. People are angry with Democrats because they came up with something which they had the nerve to call a health care bill, that was really giant piece of corporate welfare that would do little to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t mad at Democrats just because they continued the bail out of Wall Street, they are mad that the bailout came with almost no strings attached, and with no regulatory reform.<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t mad because you have proposed unqualified or outrageous nominees ( you didn’t) , they are mad because you have allowed those nominees to wither on the vine for months, while the important work they are supposed to be doing, goes undone. Yeah, I\u2019m talking about DOJ Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen right now, too. You have that recess appointment power for a reason.<\/p>\nThe people of this country elected you to lead them. It\u2019s time to toughen up and get to the leading part.<\/p>\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An open letter to President Obama: \u201cPeople are so thirsty for real leadership they will crawl across the desert for it and when they find out it\u2019s a mirage they will drink the sand.\u201d I ought to needlepoint that quote on a pillow for the Oval Office for you. You campaigned on hope, to people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The list goes on and on. During the campaign, you laid out a whole series of policy initiatives. People didn\u2019t elect you because they liked YOU; they elected you because they liked the policies you were proposing.\u00a0 I assume that you actually thought about those policies and decided you actually liked them before campaigning on them. Mr. President, you must support your own decisions.<\/p>\n
Anyone who has ever read this blog knows that I have\u00a0no love for George W. Bush. In his entire presidency, he only got one thing right. He knew how to be decisive. Right or wrong, once he decided to do a thing, he didn\u2019t let anyone or anything get in his way (until his wrong decisions got overturned in court). I\u2018m not suggesting that you go off half-cocked, or that you make every single thing a \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d contest; but there are some things important enough to fight for.<\/p>\n
In your case, it might not even take a \u201cfight.\u201d Just a “get out in front of the crowd, point in the direction you want to go and march toward the goal” kind of leadership. You have a golden tongue, and the post-presidential campaign activist group Organizing for America has an email list of millions.<\/p>\n
If you want real health care (not health insurance) reform, scrap the piece of **** bill in the Senate and go tell them what you want to see in a new bill. If you have to roll up your sleeves and get out a pencil and help the write it, then maybe you should do that. Think it\u2019s too risky? You could not fail on health care more than you already are.<\/p>\n
You want to restore American rule of law and the international prestige that comes with that? You go to New York City, put up a sound stage in Foley Square and tell the people why it is legally and morally necessary to hold the KSM trial there and that, no matter the nay saying of cowards back in Washington, you will act upon the expertise of the lawyers of the Justice Department and the lawyers of the Department of Defense and the security experts of the U.S. Marshal\u2019s Service. These people are experts in their fields, and the president should not only be able to rely upon that expertise, but should also publicly endorse that expertise.<\/p>\n
I know you get accused of not being tough on terror, but I think the polling that trends that way has less to do with your terror policies, than with the incredible timidity and excessive deference you keep showing towards Congress. Look, the Constitution gives Congress enormous power; they don\u2019t need help from you in holding or wielding power. However, the\u00a0people<\/strong> of this country elected YOU president. You don\u2019t need permission from Congress to be a president, you already are the president.<\/p>\nThe people are looking to you to lead; to toughen up and go out there and do the things you promised on the campaign trail. In the absence of real leadership, the populist anger out there can be co-opted by the likes of Dick Army, who\u2019s trying to manipulate the tea party movement, or even by a grifter like Sarah Palin. Talk about a mirage of leadership — sheez!<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t angry with Democrats because they failed to pass a health care bill. People are angry with Democrats because they came up with something which they had the nerve to call a health care bill, that was really giant piece of corporate welfare that would do little to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t mad at Democrats just because they continued the bail out of Wall Street, they are mad that the bailout came with almost no strings attached, and with no regulatory reform.<\/p>\nPeople aren\u2019t mad because you have proposed unqualified or outrageous nominees ( you didn’t) , they are mad because you have allowed those nominees to wither on the vine for months, while the important work they are supposed to be doing, goes undone. Yeah, I\u2019m talking about DOJ Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen right now, too. You have that recess appointment power for a reason.<\/p>\nThe people of this country elected you to lead them. It\u2019s time to toughen up and get to the leading part.<\/p>\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An open letter to President Obama: \u201cPeople are so thirsty for real leadership they will crawl across the desert for it and when they find out it\u2019s a mirage they will drink the sand.\u201d I ought to needlepoint that quote on a pillow for the Oval Office for you. You campaigned on hope, to people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The people are looking to you to lead; to toughen up and go out there and do the things you promised on the campaign trail. In the absence of real leadership, the populist anger out there can be co-opted by the likes of Dick Army, who\u2019s trying to manipulate the tea party movement, or even by a grifter like Sarah Palin. Talk about a mirage of leadership — sheez!<\/p>\n
People aren\u2019t angry with Democrats because they failed to pass a health care bill. People are angry with Democrats because they came up with something which they had the nerve to call a health care bill, that was really giant piece of corporate welfare that would do little to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n
People aren\u2019t mad at Democrats just because they continued the bail out of Wall Street, they are mad that the bailout came with almost no strings attached, and with no regulatory reform.<\/p>\n
People aren\u2019t mad because you have proposed unqualified or outrageous nominees ( you didn’t) , they are mad because you have allowed those nominees to wither on the vine for months, while the important work they are supposed to be doing, goes undone. Yeah, I\u2019m talking about DOJ Office of Legal Counsel nominee Dawn Johnsen right now, too. You have that recess appointment power for a reason.<\/p>\n
The people of this country elected you to lead them. It\u2019s time to toughen up and get to the leading part.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An open letter to President Obama: \u201cPeople are so thirsty for real leadership they will crawl across the desert for it and when they find out it\u2019s a mirage they will drink the sand.\u201d I ought to needlepoint that quote on a pillow for the Oval Office for you. You campaigned on hope, to people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An open letter to President Obama: \u201cPeople are so thirsty for real leadership they will crawl across the desert for it and when they find out it\u2019s a mirage they will drink the sand.\u201d I ought to needlepoint that quote on a pillow for the Oval Office for you. You campaigned on hope, to people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}