By Verne Strickland / June 8, 2011
Dear Mr. President:
My wife and I have endured a long separation. In politics, and politics only.
From the time you declared for the presidency, she supported you. She saw a new birth of American idealism. Someone in Washington she could trust. Change she could believe in.
I didn’t. I saw an opportunist, someone who was somehow a bit too glib and ingratiating. I saw a left-leaning politician with an underlying contempt for America.
We battled, Durrene and I. She stood me down that you were sincere, honest and able. She told me I was quick to criticize, even unfeeling and unappreciative. Excessively conservative, hidebound in my philosophy.
I didn’t yield. And she, in turn, remained unswerving in her loyalty.
Durrene is an intelligent woman. Patriotic. Idealistic. Informed on the issues. She charts her own course. I have always respected that and am proud of her. Still, we have had some very spirited partisan disagreements over you, your political gamesmanship, your claims that you have worked hard for the people of America.
There is no doubt you have worked hard. But my impression has been that much of this effort has gone to bend the core principles of the nation to your own designs. I have not subscribed to those objectives.
Durrene stuck with you, undaunted, faithful to you and your administration. But slowly, surely, your ultra-thin veneer of respectability, patriotism, honesty and integrity has worn off, so that we can see who and what you really are. I never bought the pose. And now, after many troubled months, your true colors have come into focus for her as well.
You are guilty of blind-siding the American people with political double-talk, obscured motives, questionable international alliances, furtive back-room deals, and surrogates sent forth like stunt doubles hired to do your dirty work.
And all the while, you shirked your responsibilities as the gatekeeper of the national economy, until now we find ourselves essentially broke as a nation, borrowing madly from the Chinese, while you plead that you need a debt hike and higher taxes, but duck into the tall grass at any suggestion of cutting federal spending.
Then there is the Obamacare debacle, which fooled no one except the liberal poobahs who crafted this ponderous horror -- in secret, no less -- a budget-busting, unworkable, misguided and totally incomprehensible behemoth.
And lest we forget, there is the matter of our porous borders, illegal immigration, miscues on our military commitments, plus crime, crime, crime, abortions, embarrassing education failures, record high fuel prices, billions in foreign aid to "nations" that take the cash with one hand and slam the door in our face with the other.
As this dirty game has only gotten dirtier, you turned your hounds loose on us -- Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Eric Holder, Lady Ga Ga.
Well, it couldn't go on forever, and it hasn't. Your approval ratings have tanked, save for a bonus bounce for killing Osama bin Laden. If you can't gin up another bin Laden, you're kind of stuck with the status quo.
So now the winds that have blown at your back are coming in from the other direction. You have to squint now to make your way, as the dust from your deeds swirls up in your face. Your loyal supporters, including my wife, are leaving you in droves. They’re not naïve. They have just been gathering their courage to break ranks and desert a cause that has let them down hard.
The genie came out of the bottle in the 2010 off-year elections, and you will have a devil of a time getting it back in. You better hope it's not too late. I hope it is.
You campaigned as the Champion of Change. Are the changes we now demand too much to ask? Honesty. Openness. Honor. Character. We all know the answer.
Mr. President, political reconciliation with my wife came not because of anything I did. I couldn’t convince her that you were not deserving of her trust and enthusiasm. You accomplished that yourself. You seem embarrassed by your own country. America is discovering that it should likewise be embarrassed by you.
I'm delighted and grateful to have my wife back. Now we have to finish the job of reclaiming our country.
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