Speak from the heart

Dear Mr. President:

You have had more thrown at you than any other president in a long, long time.  And there is no denying that your job is made more difficult by unspoken racism.

But, Mr. President, you failed to lead by framing the issues before us.  You let others steal the story line.  Maybe your deference comes from your background as a Constitutional scholar.  Don’t ever take broad executive power off the table again — if the 14th Amendment gives you power, threaten to use it.  Be the man who hunted down Osama Bin Laden. 

Don’t look at polls.  Look at us. 

Inspire us again.  Remember how you did it?  You told us your vision and you told us things we didn’t want to hear.  You can tell us that it wasn’t as easy to clean up Washington and that you had to make decisions based on information that President Obama had that Candidate Obama didn’t have.  We can understand if you are angry about the Congress. 

But you need to say it.  You need to give your vision, your goals as modified by the political realities.

Lead.  Mr. President.