As one of the relatively few people in this country who saw through your act early on, and for the right reasons, let me first say how utterly ashamed I am to call myself a registered Democrat. You are a disgrace not only to the party at large, but to the thousands — perhaps, dare I say, even millions of Americans who were and remain so desperate for someone to come and rescue our once-great nation from the fascists that they placed their hope and faith in you. Hang your head in shame, and then look me straight in the eye and don't turn away until I'm done.
According to an article in New York Magazine, the electorate has had about enough of you. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has you running in a statistical dead heat with Republican John McCain, FiveThirtyEight.com's poll doesn't look good for your chances either, and Zogby has your GOP counterpart five points ahead. Are you trying to blow this election for us?!? Because it sure as hell seems as though you are.
The NY Magazine article gives several reasons for your pathetic performance thus far, but it left out the most obvious: not only your consistent refusal to fight back against the smears of the far right and its tired old champion for this election cycle, but, most importantly, your deliberate alienation of your own political party's base. Time and again, you have demonstrated that you do not represent Americans on any issue of importance, and voters realize this. Long before you secured the Democratic Party nomination to be the ringer candidate against the election sham's already-chosen victor, and every day since then, you have taken positions including (but in no way limited to):
- Your vile "Harry and Louise" attack mailers, which used the same right-wing talking points against Hillary Clinton's health care proposals that were used to great success in the 1990s,
- Your purging — quickly followed by a reinstatement after the inevitable uproar from outraged supporters — of roughly nine hundred anti-war delegates from California, probably out of fear that they would defect over to the Clinton camp once they caught wind of your impending flip-flop regarding a pullout from Iraq,
- Your regular, condescending, talking down to Blacks in speeches,
- Your praise of the traitor Ronald Reagan,
- Your betrayal during the FISA battle,
- Your allegedly telling the Canadian government that your initial apparent criticism of NAFTA was "just campaign rhetoric," which was quickly buried thanks in large part to a denial by Canada that you had said any such thing,
- Your provocative and unnecessary pandering to Israel's fascist government over the topic of Jerusalem, and
- Your embrace of the horrendous Friedman school of economic policy.
That's just off the top of my head, nor is it the most worrisome reason for your refusal to campaign like someone who wants to win. I have a friend named Dave who has worked on numerous Democratic political campaigns, including yours. He is witness to the stupid things you've got your people in critical states such as Ohio doing, such as:
- Failing to even install a working telephone system in your Lakewood, Ohio, campaign office,
- Sending your people out to register voters — REPUBLICAN-leaning ones at that — whom you MUST know will NEVER vote for you, and
- Deliberately avoiding mentioning that it was under the presidency of Bill Clinton that average American incomes were higher, while it was under the shrub that those same incomes fell.
This isn't rocket science, Obama; it's politics. You've been in the proverbial game long enough to know this. You seem hellbent on losing this election, and you need to explain why to those who placed their faith and hopes in you before you dash them just a little over two months from now. It's that, or pull your head out of your rear orifice and start trying to win this thing. This race has never been, nor shall it ever be, about you; it's about this country and the people in it, and turning back from the precipice of fascist empire your predecessors have brought us all to.
I'm not the only one who feels this way, nor am I the only one capable of reading polls and understanding why the results are the way they are. Tim Gatto, Dave Lindorff, and David Sirota, for example, all have entries today either implying or flat out stating why you are losing this election — and it's all for the same reason: your insistence on alienating your own political party's base. Get with the program and listen to the advice of those who are trying to help you. Tell the Iago-like advisers whispering in your ear to screw off, that they're costing you the election and you're done with them. It's that, or go into hiding from all the people you've let down once you've delivered your concession speech.
That's all I have to say to you, Obama. You have your choice to make, though I am certain you made it long ago. Just know this: no matter what happens in November, you'll still be comfortably employed, while the rest of us will have to continue suffering the conservative policies you support.
Sincerely,
Michael Kwiatkowski
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