Dear Barack Obama

Mr. President,

This is one of your smaller supporters. I don't have a lot of money. I aspire to having a lot of money (don't we all?) but right now I'm a small business owner. I'm a grandmom (mom to three - grandmom to two), a woman of the sixties, and a wife. 

I'm looking forward to the DNC this week. I watched the RNC and I was disappointed by much of it, but not surprised. Ann Romney is a delightful woman - wife, mother, grandmother - though not small business owner. I don't feel that she understands me, at all. Mitt Romney seems like a good man - good husband, good grandfather, and (so they say) good businessman. Together they make a nice couple. Which doesn't qualify them to occupy the White House.

The same can be said for you and Michelle. You're a nice couple. I like both of you as people. But, just as being a nice couple doesn't quality Mitt and Ann to be in the White House, neither does it qualify you and Michelle to be there.

What qualifies a person to be president is his or her focus on America as a member of a world unit, not as a country by itself. It's an ability to create jobs, to support women because our issues have so often been neglected or ignored, and to bring foreign policy to the meetings you have with people of other countries. There's a lot more in all of those things, but let's use those three things as the umbrella of why one person is better for the Presidency, than another.

I'm voting for you, again, because I believe you'll put forth all the effort you have to make America better. I believe you support women and women's issues (truly, and this will anger some people, I have to wonder how much a family of all boys gets the women's issues thing... no, daughters-in-law don't count and even Mrs. Romney doesn't count... she lived and lives a privileged life, with no connection to those of us who sometimes wondered where our next meal would come from and why even when we worked as hard as the men in our office, we were paid less), and I believe you will continue to support America in your foreign policy, with an eye on the whole world, not just our little corner of it.

Here's the thing - the Romney's don't seem to want to play nice in the sandbox, as we like to say in the middle-class. He wants to RULE. Because America is GREAT! Here's the thing, if you're really great, you play nice with other people, you support other countries, you give the poor a helping hand (sorry, Mitt, they can't go ask Mom and Dad for money - there often isn't a Mom and Dad to ask), and you don't dictate. That's called dictatorship, I think. 

I'm writing this for a specific purpose beyond telling you why I want to see you win another four years in the White House. It's to say - why aren't you tapping into US - your devout supporters? Will we see a middle-class woman speak at your convention? Will you skype in someone who can tell the world why she thinks you're the best choice - without name-calling or lies. You do use social media... I follow several pages supporting you on Facebook. But, I don't see any real engagement.

Why aren't you engaging your constituency? Why aren't you taking the best and brightest posts and remarks and using them in your commercials? I don't get it. Every commercial I see is scripted and has definitely been edited by your campaign managers, no doubt. They're not real. They're not today - they only reflect how I feel, about 10% of the time. I want to see your supporters saying, "Here's why I'm voting for Obama - he's made my life better, he's supported the middle class, he believes in women's issues, and he makes me happy to be an American." 

That's it. Just getting that off my chest. I've had enough of the whole Bain thing, the whole "Mitt isn't a good businessman" and "Mitt is against abortion at all costs"... Now tell me why you're better and show me some people I can identify with - people like me, sharing their thoughts, unscripted.

Yes, I give you permission to record the real supporters and only use the ones that reflect the best of what you're about. As a writer, I understand editing.

Thanks for listening to me. 

Yvonne DiVita

p.s. A few pictures of the family with Bo wouldn't hurt

p.p.s. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) found on the official White House website

Comments

[Elisa Camahort Page]

Good list Tom, and of course there's getting the troops out of Iraq altogether.

I don't expect to learn too much from conventions, but I'm glad they focused on the auto industry...it really wasn't on my radar screen, but it was obviously a shining moment.

[twitter.com/Tom_Collins]

Great list, Elisa!

I agree with all of your items. I'd add that that I've been happy and proud:
- when President Obama stood by the U.S. auto industry
- when the U.S. auto companies AND their workers AND their customers stood up, rebounded, and paid back the loans early (no, the CEOs didn't "build it" by themselves)
- when the President kept his pledge to put enough troops and resources into Afghanistan to make a difference and then announced a definite plan for getting them home
- when he brokered the international effort to minimize the blood-bath in Libya (only wish there was a similar solution for Syria)
- when he worked so hard and came so close to reaching a compromise deficit reduction deal, only to have it scuttled by the Republicans over tax cuts for the wealthy (McConnel, Cantor, and Ryan, to name some names mentioned in the press coverage last July)

On your Affordable Healthcare Act item, I'd also note we are personal victims of the private insurance company system and will be helped greatly when the pre-existing condition rules take effect in 2014. We were both covered continuously from birth, when for no other reason than we moved to a new state, the insurance company took the opportunity to treat everything in our medical histories as pre-existing. Until the new law kicks in, we essentially pay premiums for nothing except possible future catastrophic illnesses.

In know there are more, but these help show the leadership I want in my president.

[Carol Bryant]

I have stayed away from politics on Facebook and for the most part, in general on social media. Well, that and religion. I feel compelled to applaud you for this post, Yvonne. I almost MISSED this, but thanks to my RSS feed reminder, there you were. Spot on. Oh so spot on.

[Elisa Camahort Page]

Thanks Yvonne :)

I can't complain too much...he did address BlogHer this year via live video link..I also think his recent Reddit Q&A shows his campaign is trying to engage in different ways. but I don't feel most communications I get ask much of us. It's still just money candidates (all of 'em) are after.

[Yvonne DiVita]

I love the way you think, Elisa. This is exactly what should happen. One has to wonder why it hasn't already. One has to wonder if his campaign manager is doing his or her job. And, once again, one has to wonder why he isn't tapping into US... the women who want more of Obama and more success for our gender and more fair treatment of small businesses.

[Elisa Camahort Page]

What I would like to see is his ads talking about what he has already done, not what he's going to do. I feel like the campaign is being run like he's trying to get into office, not already there. Like he's buying into the unfair criticism that he's hasn't accomplished his goals. When Mitt Romney said the happiest day was the day Obama was elected, he was actually wrong, at least for me.

I was happy when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
I was happy when he ended Don't Ask Don't Tell
I was happy when health care reform got passed (and then upheld by the Supreme Court)
I was happy when he came out in support of same sex marriage
I was happy when Osama bin Laden was killed

One thing I've been unhappy with: The increasingly horrible commute in my area...because people are getting back to work, slowly but surely.

So, I was happy when we started adding jobs every month, whatever the number, rather than losing them every month.

Talk to us about that.

Because right now both sides sound the same...lots of big talk about what they're going to do. but only one side has already been doing it. Maybe not perfectly, and maybe not at the pace I'd like (particularly given the obstructionist Republican Party) but it's getting done.

Talk about that.