Dear Mr. President,
Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm going to turn 40 in a little over a month. I have 9 year old twins, a loving wife, and a good job. I've been working on campaigns for Democrats since 1988, even though I wasn't old enough to vote in that election. Two and a half years ago, you inspired me. I was sick of seeing Democrats lose, and you brought an energy and vision to the country that I had never encountered before. So I threw myself into volunteering for your campaign in a way I never had before. I knocked on doors. I made hundreds (if not thousands) of calls. I registered voters with my 7 year old son in College Park. I brought BOTH my kids to costco and had then hand out information on early voting (until some old lady complained, even though it was non-partisan information and the manager told me we had to move).
We all know what happened next. You won, and won BIG. Almost 70 million people voted for you. I know, because I spent the next month updating totals from every county in every state since I didn't want to let go of the high from the election. You had a mandate. People wanted change. They were sick of 8 years of Republican rule where the rich got richer and everyone else fell behind.
What did you do with that mandate? A LOT of stuff. Health insurance reform. Financial reform. Lily Ledbetter. Lower taxes. Stimulus that may have kept us from a depression. Stem cell research. The list goes on and on.
And what happened two weeks ago? The Democrats got clobbered. Why? Because 29 million people who voted for you in 2008 didn't show up in 2010. Exit polls show that 45% of the 2010 electorate voted for you. 45% of 90 million is 40.5 million, 29 million less than the 69.5 million who voted for you in 2008.
So, I'm frustrated. I made calls again in 2010, maybe not as many as 2008, but hundreds. And due to the pounding you've taken in the press, I didn't even want to follow the "script" and say "will you stand with the President" since I didn't feel like getting cursed out over the phone by people who don't have their facts straight. See, I don't think you've done a bad job as President; you've done an amazing amount. BUT NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT! As amazing a job as you did in inspiring people in 2008 and at your inauguration in 2009, you've done a TERRIBLE job since then.
So, I have one humble request. Figure out what happened to the Obama from 2008 and BRING HIM BACK! 90% of people could care one whit who gets what done on Capitol Hill, they just want to know that we're making their lives better. And that's the irony of 2010 - the Democrats did stuff to make our lives better and then RAN AWAY from that record. So we need the 2008 Obama back, the one that will fight against the odds to win the nomination, the one that didn't panic when polls showed him behind, the one that people related to and voted for. Does he still exist, or was he, as some random editorialist said back in 2008 "an empty vessel that people pored their hopes into and saw what they wanted to see"? I sure hope that's not the case, but if the 2008 Obama is still there, somewhere, now would be a good time to dig him out, to get him outside of Washington, DC and into the American heartland, and to finish the good start he made in the last two years to keep this country great.
Thank you for your time!