A welcome change: 1). President Obama READS. 2). President Obama reads letters from THE PUBLIC.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

"Dear President Obama": The President Reads 10 Letters a Day from the Public, With Policy Ramifications

February 23, 2009 7:15 AM



http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/dear-president.html

The letter to President Obama came from a woman in Arizona whose husband lost his job. He was able to find work, but the new gig came with one-third the pay; the family is struggling to make their mortgage payments.

The letter from the Arizona woman illustrated a policy conundrum, recalled senior adviser David Axelrod. President Obama read it, and absorbed the lesson.

"She said they had made all their mortgage payments, but were running out of money," Axelrod said. "And they were told they could not renegotiate unless they were delinquent in their payments."

Before President Obama's housing speech last week, he'd made copies of his letter and "sent it to his financial team and said, 'This is the kind of person our housing plan should help," Axelrod recalled.

The president had other copies made of that letter. He had it distributed to staff on Air Force One.

"He had been struck by how powerful the story was," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "He wanted us as we were creating policy to make sure that we were listening and hearing these examples as well."

[Mz Pip]

1. I'll send him one.

And this is what it will say.

Dear President Obama,

In light of the recent and quite probably long economic downturn it might be worth considering eleiminating some of those 700 military bases we have scattered around the world. Do we really need a base that covers half an island in Japan? How about Germany? WWII ended a long time ago and we need to move away from that military industrial complex mindset.

Thank you very much.

Mz Pip

[liberalmuse]

2. That's great to know.

I've sent him a few emails, but nothing poignant. I've also sent more than a few not-so-nice emails to the 'pubs lately and am probably going to get audited by the IRS some day soon.

[Clio the Leo]

3. I wonder if any of these people will be present for the speech tomorrow night?

You know how there's the obligatory "real person" or "American hero" that sits in the balconey with the First Lady. At some point, the President will call on that person to rise and stand as a human example of whatever point he's trying to make .... at which point the Congress will stand up and give the obligatory ovation.

[emilyg]

4. Certainly not the first

Pres. to do this.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. The first one since 2000, and that was why I posted it. n/t

[Hutzpa]

5. hmmm... I'm not surprise one bit

for doubters maybe now you'll know he means business.