Dear President Obama...

Letter e-mailed to the White House at 10:21 PM on April 21, 2009

Dear President Obama,

You don’t know me, of course, but my name is Randal Schaffer and I am a resident of Washington state by way of Arkansas and Alaska.

The first thing that I’d like to say here is that, not only did I vote for you, but I lobbied for your election both during the primary and during the general election. A 40 year old friend of mine who voted for the first time in her life in the 2008 general election voted for you (she gives me a lot of credit for this) and was moved almost to tears when you were elected.

The reason that I’m writing this letter is because I’m concerned about the direction that your administration is headed in these first not-quite hundred days. I would like to express some specific concerns that I have.

First off is the war in Iraq. The thing that probably cemented my support for you was your insistence on keeping the war in the forefront of the election, even to the extent of questioning the wisdom of having entered into this war to begin with. I was pleased beyond pleased when you said that you would release the Guantanamo detainees. Since then, absolutely no progress seems to have been made on this front aside from “re-branding” the war. If we learned nothing else from the debacles in Viet Nam and Korea, Mr. President, we learned that calling a war anything other than “a war” is disrespectful to the men and women who die and a serious tactical mistake. I beg you to take rapid and radical action to remove our young men and women from harm’s way and stop wasting our treasure in this misadventure.

Speaking of the Guantanamo detainees, I must say that I was heart-broken when I saw the press conference where you defended the denial of habeas corpus to the detainees. Surely you realize, as a Constitutional scholar, that the Constitution only allows two instances where a president may do this: insurrection and invasion. Neither of these qualifications have been met. I strongly urge you to reconsider this position.

The final point that I’d like to make is the continued financial bail-outs of American businesses. I realize that uninformed people try to paint you as a socialist on this issue, but I would disagree. If you were a socialist, we would take control of the businesses that we bail out and actually get something BACK for the money that we give to them. As it stands now, the hemorrhaging of our treasure begun by the previous administration seems to be continuing boldly under yours.

Finally, please allow me to say that I realize that your administration has barely begun, and that there are at least another three and three quarters years to fix some of these problems. But I believe that the sooner that you get to work on them, the sooner progress will be made.

The republicans attempted to paint you as a dangerous radical during the election. I humbly ask, Mr. President, that you BE a dangerous radical! Like Jesus, come to us bearing an axe. Come to us ready to kill ANY bill, including stimulus bills and military appropriations that bear even a whiff of pork. Allow any business that fails on it’s own terms to FAIL. (Having said that, I understand the importance of propping up the banks, but even that “aid” should be of very short duration and with an extremely long list of demands and requirements attached to it.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter (or thank you to whichever of his aids read it).

Although leery, I still have confidence in your ability to lead our country into a better tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Randal Schaffer