(ThyBlackMan.com) Dear Mr. President,
I write this blog as an open letter of concern for your future in American politics. I’d just like to say it doesn’t look good. There are a few reasons why.
- Wisconsin. A history making election not in your favor.
- The economy. It’s simply not getting better.
- There’s no continuity.
I know you’re doing everything you possibly can in the time you have left in office to get the country going. But it’s simply not happening. You’re trying to push a dead car up a hill while it’s still in park. Clearly you’re losing. I’d like to be confident in saying, “Yes you’ll get re-elected.” That’s a conviction best left to 140 characters or less, easily deleted if it turns out not to be true.
Speaking of Twitter, you’ve got to do more than tweet and facebook your friends and followers to get their support. You’ve got to understand people follow you on Facebook and Twitter as a status symbol in hope you’ll follow 
them back. We don’t all necessarily care about what you have to say when you blow up our timeline on a daily basis. Basically, Mr. President, you need to reconnect.
On point one, the recall election in Wisconsin was only the third of its kind in the history of the Nation. In the other two elections the governor’s recalled did not remain in office. Now here we are with a history making recall, not just because it’s the third in the Nation, but because Scott Walker kept his job. More people voted for him the second time around than the first. Mr. President that just doesn’t bode well in a country where the political motto is: “All politics is local.”
The failure by the Democratic party to keep the outrage going that generated and mobilized the recall election is absolutely ridiculous. How can you not win a recall election in a swing state when the people of the state did all the work for you? If there was ever a signifier that people in this country are disenchanted with you and your party this is it.
It’s not enough to send your campaign minions out on the trail to do your bidding for you. If you truly want to win and try to make a difference in this deeply divided country than you have to make the people in each state of this union know you understand their frustrations and their struggles. It’s not enough to release a campaign ad to show empathy with the everyday struggle of the American people. It’s not enough to say you know struggle because of the way you grew up or that you and the First Lady just paid off your law school student loans. The truth of the matter is you’re grown and not struggling anymore. Your student loans are paid off. You live in a large white mansion free of charge and can afford thousand dollar suits with a chest full of flag pins if you desired. You have to connect on more than an “I feel your pain” point of view. You have to connect not only on a level of I’ve been where you are, but also on the level of I have a plan and policy proposals to make your situation better.
To that end. Congress has not made it easy for you to get your policy proposals out to the American people. For that reason you need to blame them every chance you get. But you haven’t done that. At least not often enough. Maybe it’s in the vein of good faith or in the spirit of bi-partisanship. But whatever it is you’re trying to do is not working and it’s making you look weak. In the words of your opponents you look incompetent. Especially when it comes to the economy.
On point two, the economy you were handed sucked. The economy you have overseen sucks. It’s not your fault but it is. The reason being that no matter what you were handed and who was to blame your job as commander in chief was to make it better. Granted the European debt crisis is not helping your cause. To your credit you have helped the economy create millions of jobs in the time you’ve been in office. That’s just not enough when 14 to 15 million people are out of work and millions of college students are graduating without work.
It also doesn’t help when you say things like this.
[youtube qevbhsmKFOQ]
The private sector is doing better. It is not doing fine. “Fine” is indicative of an entire economic system that is thriving, flourishing and a stock market that doesn’t hang its head in shame at the slightest news of not receiving a bailout. The private sector is not doing fine. It’s not even doing ok. The private sector is hanging on. That’s it.
Mr. President you need to make it clear, and everybody that is part of your re-election effort needs to make it clear you all will do the best by this country to get the private sector back to being fine. You will move it from hanging on, past okay, to fine, to well. The ideal is for the private sector to do well. Anything other than “well” is not good enough. To get the private sector to “well” you kind of have to exhibit confidence in it. Unlike your top campaigner Bill Clinton.
On to point three, don’t let people speak for you or campaign anymore. As in ever again. Not never. Mr. President, you have been royally screwed by members of your own party who just don’t stay on message. Joe Biden never goes this far off message. If you want to energize the base give them something to be excited about, not something they have to rationalize to their Republican friends who like to throw campaign gaffes in their faces.
Messaging is a major problem for the Democrats, I understand. But you guys need to get it together. Take a page from the Republican playbook. Obamacare. Death Panels. Job Killer. Those three phrases mobilized the extremists of this country to vote against their interests because they were afraid a liberal was going to take away their guns.
Puns and catch phrases can be difficult. But if done correctly they can make those who have fallen out of low with your policies fall back in love. And that good sir wins elections. Kind of like this.
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What does the Obama camp need to do to move “Forward” to a second term?
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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