Dear Mr. President,
I had hoped that with the passing of a few days since the debate and some additional time to reflect upon what transpired, I would feel better about your performance. Unfortunately, time has diminished neither my disappointment nor my anger. True, the campaign has begun to push back and to expose a number of the lies Mr. Romney conveyed during the debate and, damn, if it isn't cute how the campaign has made children and their parents fearful of losing Big Bird. However, there remains the very disquieting realization that you let millions of your supporters down, not because you had a bad night, but because you didn’t fight and simply did not have our backs.
Throughout the campaign to this point, I know you are aware of how much energy has gone into pushing back against the assorted lies that had become the mainstay of the Romney/Ryan campaign whether it was Medicare, the budget, Obamacare, the military or Israel. The list of mis-steps by Mr. Romney came fast and furious and every one of your supporters stood ready and willing to push back…to take issue with and, in doing so, expose the lie. The stage was yours to bring our efforts full circle; to make good on our efforts and, with the entire country watching (not simply your devout followers) expose the lies for what they are. The opportunities were plentiful. How many times, for example, did Mr. Romney accuse you of “cutting” $716 billion dollars from Medicare? While I understand that he was baiting you and that there was certainly time enough during the debate to respond, your ultimate silence left exposed so many who so pointedly took issue with the Romney/Ryan $716 billion mantra. With each passing lost opportunity to respond I could only think about Soledad O’Brien’s unrelenting reproachment of Tim Pawlenty over the issue. If that effort and every effort each of your supporters made on your behalf is to have any credibility it was for you to stand before the nation in the debate forum and put the issue to bed once and for all.
Instead, you stood silent while Mr. Romney not only continued to mis-represent and mis-stated the facts not only about you but about his own positions, but accused you of lying! How, on earth, do you allow yourself to become the poster boy for the “Big Lie” when it is and has never been the case.
An old high school friend of mine, Ken Grant, left the following post on Facebook in the quick aftermath of the debate:
Last night’s debate made me sick, literally. The GOP plan to reinvent Romney worked perfectly: 1) any plan you might have had in the last two years that was unpopular, simply deny that you ever had that plan. 2) any plan that Obama has that contains some popular elements, simply claim that your [new] plan has this too. What made this so infuriating was how easily it worked. Obama had the worst performance of his life and Lehrer was totally ineffective at calling anyone out on the facts. After the GOP convention they openly admitted that they weren't going to let their message be affected by the fact checkers. No truer words were spoken. (http://www.facebook.com/ken.w.grant)
If you lose this election…and you may very well…you will have no one to blame but yourself. You took a lead which was well-earned, but earned on the efforts of so many people who went to such great lengths to defend you and to expose Mr. Romney and you simply did not reciprocate. I can forgive a poor performance…we all have them. However, simply leaving your supporters to twist in the breeze (and that is exactly how it felt) cannot be forgiven. I wish it were otherwise.
I had hoped that with the passing of a few days since the debate and some additional time to reflect upon what transpired, I would feel better about your performance. Unfortunately, time has diminished neither my disappointment nor my anger. True, the campaign has begun to push back and to expose a number of the lies Mr. Romney conveyed during the debate and, damn, if it isn't cute how the campaign has made children and their parents fearful of losing Big Bird. However, there remains the very disquieting realization that you let millions of your supporters down, not because you had a bad night, but because you didn’t fight and simply did not have our backs.
Throughout the campaign to this point, I know you are aware of how much energy has gone into pushing back against the assorted lies that had become the mainstay of the Romney/Ryan campaign whether it was Medicare, the budget, Obamacare, the military or Israel. The list of mis-steps by Mr. Romney came fast and furious and every one of your supporters stood ready and willing to push back…to take issue with and, in doing so, expose the lie. The stage was yours to bring our efforts full circle; to make good on our efforts and, with the entire country watching (not simply your devout followers) expose the lies for what they are. The opportunities were plentiful. How many times, for example, did Mr. Romney accuse you of “cutting” $716 billion dollars from Medicare? While I understand that he was baiting you and that there was certainly time enough during the debate to respond, your ultimate silence left exposed so many who so pointedly took issue with the Romney/Ryan $716 billion mantra. With each passing lost opportunity to respond I could only think about Soledad O’Brien’s unrelenting reproachment of Tim Pawlenty over the issue. If that effort and every effort each of your supporters made on your behalf is to have any credibility it was for you to stand before the nation in the debate forum and put the issue to bed once and for all.
Instead, you stood silent while Mr. Romney not only continued to mis-represent and mis-stated the facts not only about you but about his own positions, but accused you of lying! How, on earth, do you allow yourself to become the poster boy for the “Big Lie” when it is and has never been the case.
An old high school friend of mine, Ken Grant, left the following post on Facebook in the quick aftermath of the debate:
Last night’s debate made me sick, literally. The GOP plan to reinvent Romney worked perfectly: 1) any plan you might have had in the last two years that was unpopular, simply deny that you ever had that plan. 2) any plan that Obama has that contains some popular elements, simply claim that your [new] plan has this too. What made this so infuriating was how easily it worked. Obama had the worst performance of his life and Lehrer was totally ineffective at calling anyone out on the facts. After the GOP convention they openly admitted that they weren't going to let their message be affected by the fact checkers. No truer words were spoken. (http://www.facebook.com/ken.w.grant)
If you lose this election…and you may very well…you will have no one to blame but yourself. You took a lead which was well-earned, but earned on the efforts of so many people who went to such great lengths to defend you and to expose Mr. Romney and you simply did not reciprocate. I can forgive a poor performance…we all have them. However, simply leaving your supporters to twist in the breeze (and that is exactly how it felt) cannot be forgiven. I wish it were otherwise.
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