Dear President Obama – You Have Lost Me

I hitched myself to your bandwagon well before anyone else. I interned for you, I donated to you, I volunteered for you and I encouraged every person I knew to vote for you. I was among your staunchest supporters.

I was lucky enough to see you speak when you were polling in the single digits for the Illinois Senate race. Well before Blair Hull’s implosion and Dan Hynes inept campaign allowed you to surge through the primary. You were just beginning to craft your lofty rhetoric that we are not divided but we are the United States of America. I was behind you.

During your 21-month campaign for President the words soared beyond anything my generation has heard. We were captivated by the idea of hope and we desired a change. You were the leader of a movement to bring hope and to begin delivering change to our country. This was after eight years conservatism run amok leading to the verge of a cliff. I was behind you.

As we teetered on that cliff you helped steer us away with various economic stimulus programs. While they were not perfect they have certainly kept us out of an economic depression. A fair criticism would be the fact these programs did not go far enough in aiding the middle class who are the largest contributors to the economy. Furthermore the positive aspects of these programs were not marketed well, like the $400 tax cut middle class families received. The fantastic campaign communications skills that were readily present seemingly vanished when your administration entered the White House. Progressives questioned those skills and merely the tactics taken in the negotiations for the health care bill. Yet I was behind you.

Now the Bush tax cuts are near expiration and you take out your frustration on progressive angst against extending the cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This I am not behind. I guess this actually started long ago when you went from campaign mode into governing mode. It is essentially the same advisors and staff from the campaign but something went from being on the offensive to constantly being on the defense and surrendering ground to the Republican scorched earth strategy.

Something changed and it was not the change you promised. The tell tale came in your pre-election interview with Jon Stewart when “Yes We Can” became “Yes We Can but…” The hope and the promise of change didn’t happen and in fact Washington changed you Mr. President instead of you changing Washington.

You have comprised your values for the sake of compromise and so-called bipartisanship. I understand the idea of being one American but we have two parties because of contrasting ideas. In the campaign you explained why you were the better candidate with better ideas and better political acumen. But it has vanished. We need the campaign staff back. We need the campaign oriented Obama back. You can get me back Mr. President but it is going to take a lot of hard work.