Candidate Obama Fight Romney: You Have No Right To Disappoint Your Supporters

So it’s really not about you. It’s about the millions of American voters who support you. Fight for them.

[Open Letter To Candidate Obama]

Dear Candidate Obama.

When you step on stage for the second Presidential Candidates’ debate on October 16, I have one advice for you: forget you’re the incumbent and come out swinging like a candidate.

Make every second and every word count.

Yes. Act as if The White House is vacant. Act like both you and Republican candidate Mitt Romney want the vacant position of President.

Did Romney outdo you at the last debate? Theatrically speaking, yes. Should he have been judged overwhelmingly the “winner”? Of course not. No substance.

But Romney looked like he wanted the job more than you did and he padded his resume. He was like a snake oil salesman and sold impossible remedies. Everyone knows you can’t cut taxes by 20% across the board, lose almost $5 trillion in tax revenue, add $2 trillion to military spending and not place a huge boulder on the backs of the middle class and low-income Americans.

Romney previously already declared that he has no use for the 47% percenters who, according to the Republican candidate vote for you. Given a choice between the 47-percenters and Romney’s base, the folk he addressed at that now infamous $50,000-a-plate campaign dinner, everyone knows who will end up carrying that huge boulder.

You still have to say these things. Yet you barely showed your own resume.

The American people need to hear you say “Wait a minute Mitt, this item on your resume…” even in an era when we’ve become so accustomed to loaded resumes.

As they say in the sports world “let’s go to the tapes.” You’ll see if you rewind the first debate, everytime you mentioned the $5 trillion, Romney got animated; and not in a pleasant way. He winced and reached for that handkerchief –make sure there are no hidden notes on them– and wiped off the sweat beads.

Why did you stop saying $5 trillion? If you need to say $5 trillion 50 times, so be it. If you need to have supporters with T-shirts saying $5 trillion, so be it. Romney hates those words. It would be far better for Americans wake up the next day saying “five trillion dollars” instead of “Big Bird.”

Say “47 percent” 50 times as well.

Yes, run like Candidate Obama.

Forget you’re president of the United States of America — if you want to remain as president of the United States of America.

When you’re up there on stage 70 million viewers aren’t only looking for who deserves it most, they also want to see who wants it the most. You can’t be looking down and taking notes; the things Romney said didn’t need to be scribbled on a pad. Viewers want to watch and say “Man, Obama can’t wait to cut Mitt down on that one.”

Yes, all night you must have been thinking “how can this guy lie like a rug”? That’s not enough. Viewers can’t read your mind.

When Romney mentioned his accountant don’t you think that was a moment to ask, politely and gently, if the accountant would consider releasing more returns, not just summaries? After all, he created an opening.

Romney even managed to cut you down on out-sourcing when you should have inquired about how he feels, having helped ship U.S. work to China.

Yes, Candidate Obama, you inherited a sinking ship and it’s amazing that Republicans have the Cajones to really want to return so soon with the same policies and drive the ship into another ice berg.

Perhaps you thought Americans would say “Wait a minute, the country has now created more than 5 million new jobs under President Obama so let’s automatically re-elect him because when he was sworn in we were losing 800,000 jobs a month, there was a run on the banks, the big financial houses were on the verge of collapse, the auto industry was nearly dead, and the stock market was plunging to the bottom”?

Is that what you thought? Well that’s all true but as you know the world doesn’t work like that.

Look at it this way. People know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer and leads to death. Yet the U.S. tobacco industry is a $35 billion because millions still smoke and people die. Do you think most people who continue to smoke really want to die?

Most people need a “snap out of it” smack on the cheeks ever so often; figuratively speaking of course.

That’s why health departments make anti-smoking commercials and show the ugly damaged lungs of smokers and images of people who have had part of their throats cut out due to smoking. Yes, even when people know cigarettes kill, they need to be reminded explicitly — “snap out of it” moments.

You don’t like talking about yourself and your accomplishments?

Well look at it this way: it’s not really about you, Candidate Obama. It’s about your supporters — look at it as accomplishments on their behalf.

It’s about the almost 70 million Americans who voted for you in 2008 and millions who still support you. It’s about the millions of Americans who know the great potential of these United States and the damage that a Romney/Ryan administration could do by undoing the gains of the past four years.

It’s about the millions of Americans who have contributed to your campaign during this election cycle; there are many who have contributed the last $25 they had to their name.

It’s about the elderly and seniors who fear what a Romney and Paul Ryan administration would do to medicare, medicaid, and social security — including those great grandmothers Republicans are trying to prevent from voting in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

It’s about the women who now cringe whenever they hear words such as “transvaginal ultrasound,” “forcible rape,” “legitimate rape,” and “repeal of Roe versus Wade.”

It’s about the hard working young people who were brought to this country by their undocumented parents when they were
still under-aged.

It’s about the young students who can’t borrow tuition money from their parents, as Romney recommended, because mom and dad don’t have the kind of monthly account balance that Romney and Ryan have.

It’s about the parents of U.S. servicemen and women who yearn to see their boys and girls back home from Afghanistan while Romney dreams of an indefinite U.S. presence there and carelessly talks about U.S. muscle-flexing overseas and “drawing the red line” as if it’s some grade school dare.

It’s about the millions of Americans, low-income, middle class, young and old, Black, White, Asian and Latino, who are already enjoying the benefits of healthcare reform and don’t want to lose them if Romney repeals the law. He’s promised it’s his top mission.

And it’s about the millions of African Americans who weren’t bamboozled by Romney’s arrogant lecturing and claim that he’d be the best president for them — “you’re looking at him..” — at the NAACP Convention.

I could go on and on but I believe I’ve made my point.

So you really don’t have the right to disappoint your supporters. It’s really not about you. It’s about the millions of American voters who support you.

Fight for them. Expose the snake oil.

Remember that as you walk on stage at Hofstra University.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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