"Dear President Obama": The President Reads 10 Letters a Day from the Public...

[WilliamPitt]

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

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."

Every day President Barack Obama is handed a special purple folder. The folder contains ten letters, and every day President Obama takes time to read them. Are they from world leaders? From members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Members of the intelligence community? No, these letters have been culled from the thousands the White House Correspondence Office receives each day from Americans who have taken the time to sit down and write to their president. "They help him focus on the real problems people are facing," says Axelrod. "He really a absorbs these letters, and often shares then with us."

In his first week in office, President Obama requested that he see 10 letters a day "representative of people's concerns, from people writing into the president," recalls Gibbs, "to help get him outside of the bubble, to get more than just the information you get as an elected official."

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

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Will...

Somehow this does not surprise me...

I thought he would find a way to stay in touch with all of us...and he has.

To make that decision, and to make the time to read those letters and act upon them...

What can I say?

He's our President, and he is one hell of a man.

K&R

:patriot:

[Fleshdancer]

2. note to self: start writing President Obama on a regular basis

What a great story! Thanks for posting it.

[phantom power]

3. Does this mean the reality-based community is back in charge?

[bigtree]

4. I was just crafting a question about how he utilizes the responses

. . . and feedback. He should step outside of this folder and do some internet surfing, as well . . . but it's a welcome report.

[Forkboy]

5. You got give the guy a lot of credit for the things like this that's he's trying to do.

I'm still not convinced that Bush could actually read, let alone read letters from the citizens of the country he leads, so this is a big step up. :)

[RavensChick]

8. Huge!

I recall sending a sympathy card to the Clinton WH when his mom passed away, and I got a thank you card back a few months later. So for President Obama to read at least 10 letters a day is very special indeed. It's very refreshing!

Besides, Dubya only read on a Kindergarten level anyway!

[Catshrink]

6. A President who reads?

A President who isn't shielded from criticsm and public comment?

:wtf:

[L. Coyote]

17. Therein lies the real significance. This President actually READS!

[xxqqqzme]

7. we knew we were being robbed over the last 8

years but good lord, we were really picked clean and our bones were being left to bleach in the sun.

[DFW]

9. Stories like this are carefully prepared, but even so

I feel much better with a president who wants to give the impression (backed
up by action, no less!) that he takes a few hints from some of the real people
that elected him rather than from some God who didn't.

[lame54]

10. I wish he would read this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atMQzRFvCIY

Me send a letter to the residence of the president
with a stamp on the front saying very urgent.
The message inside went something like: Legalize it! Sensimelia!

Sensimelia is a herb that grows naturally
just like any other plant or tree.
Natural as the birds, natural as the bees
and just like them sensi ought to be: Free!
To be grown anywhere that we please
in the city in the town and in the country. Free!
In the hills and in the valley
sensi should be there for everyone to see.

To call sensi a drug is very absurd
it should be known as a natural herb.
So much diseases sensi has cured
that's why doctors use it all round the world.
For glaucoma and fever, rheumatism, arthritis and asthma
insomnia, emphysema and to block epileptic seizure.
To alleviate pain and nausea
associated with the AIDS and cancer.
Some say it is the best stress reliever
Lord knows I am believer.

Give me the ganja cookie, and the herbal tea.
Sensimelia is: Irie!
I don't care what no government say.
Sensimelia is: OK!

Legalize it! Yes man legalize it now!

We want legalization, decriminalization and emancipation
for all those sentenced to incarceration for participation
with the healing of the nation.
It's just another case of political insanity
abusing the rights of humanity.
But we should all plant a seed of this weed that we need
to avoid an ecological calamity.
We can use for paper to save some trees
use it for fuel to save some seas.
Use it for medicines to help fight diseases
and use it for food when we hungry.

Legalize it! Fe we medication.
Legalize it! Lord fe we meditation.
Legalize it! Woe throughout the nation.
Legalize it! Yes we sensimelia.

Yes! From downing street to D. C.
time to paint the white house green.
You know what I mean... Scene!

[robinlynne]

11. Wonderful!

[Greyskye]

12. A Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Who would have thunk it?

:thumbsup:

[Mithreal]

13. When I email or call the White House I have 2 issues

When I call the White House, I cannot get through until after 5PM EST and at that time I am asked to call back during normal hours. Is it too much to ask that these phone lines be open 24 hours a day? It would create jobs. And there is this wonderful new technology called voice mail or even answering machines if there is no money to create these sorts of jobs.

When I emailed the White House under Bush I received an automated response with a blank subject line every time. Now when I email the White House I NEVER get a response back. Is it too much to ask President Obama to at least have an auto-responder that lets people know their message was received?

I appreciate that the President is reading letters. Maybe he should post these letters that he reads online daily? Then we can see what he is seeing. We can see what his staff is passing on as representative.

[badgerpup]

16. This be the money quote...

Then we can see what he is seeing. We can see what his staff is passing on as representative.
Mithrael

Just hope that those who are doing the picking and culling (the words of the article, not mine) don't have their own petty little agendas on what the President sees or doesn't see...

Kudos to President Obama for making this proactive effort to receive input/information from outside the Beltway Bubble. :applause:
That's where most of us...both the "real" and "unreal" (not quite :sarcasm:, but tongue-in-cheek) Americans live, after all...

[proud patriot]

14. that's wonderful

[mimitabby]

15. thanks.

I just finished my letter! I never would have written it if you hadn't posted this.

[shintao]

18. Dear Mr. President - MP3 - To Bush

Enjoy!

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/3/11/873525/dearpresident.mp3

I really feel Americans should have an Idea Department, a department to mail suggestions, where each is dirested to whatever department they need to be sent, and ensure they are responded to with more than a wasted "We can't read every mail sent to us."

[NBachers]

19. Beats the hell out of plotting to expose Valerie Plame on AF1

[DireStrike]

20. Out of the bubble...

A heartily welcome practice, especially after our last pResident.

But. Who "culls" these letters from the thousands sent in? On what criteria?