For a look outside presidential bubble, Obama reads 10 personal letters each day

[usregimechange]

Source: Washington Post


(Photo credit: Sarah L. Voisin-The Washington Post)


The black binder arrived at the White House residence just before 8 p.m., and President Obama took it upstairs to begin his nightly reading. The briefing book was dated Jan. 8, 2010, but it looked like the same package delivered every night, with printouts of speeches, policy recommendations and scheduling notes. Near the back was a purple folder, which Obama often flips to first.

"MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESIDENT," read a sheet clipped to the folder. "Per your request, we have attached 10 pieces of unvetted correspondence addressed to you."

Inside, Obama found crinkled notebook pages, smudged ink, cursive handwriting and misspelled words -- a collection of 10 original letters that he considers among his most important daily reading material, aides said. Ever since he requested a sampling of mail on his second day in office, the letters have become a staple of his presidency. Some he immediately reads out loud to his wife; others he distributes to senior staff members aboard Air Force One. Some are from students requesting help with homework; others are from constituents demanding jobs or health care. About half of the letters, Obama said during a recent speech, "call me an idiot."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033004260.html?hpid=topnews

[winstars]

1. Read The Story

It is nice to have a real President again!

[cosmicone]

2. I sincerely hope and pray that a team is screening those things

for anthrax, viruses and rare radioactive metals etc.

[City Lights]

21. From the article:

The envelope from Monroe, Mich., arrived in Washington and was tested for chemicals and radioactive materials. Then it was packed into a 20-pound white box along with 1,000 other letters to Obama, carried into the lobby of an office building near the White House, scanned by a metal detector, eyed by a security guard and placed into an elevator destined for the ninth floor. Once there, it was stacked next to five similar boxes, all labeled "White House correspondence."

[cosmicone]

35. Thank you :) n/t

[Greyskye]

3. Worth the read.

:thumbsup:

[eridani]

4. This is a good idea, but whether it gets him out of the bubble depends on

--whether the gatekeepers have a clue. Here's hoping they do.

[flyarm]

5. maybe he needs to be reading letters from dems who have been fighting the GOP about offshore oil

offshore oil drilling for decades!..before he does the following and allows offshore drilling in Virginia and The Gulf of Mexico..off the Florida coast lines!

Has this man never heard of the Hurricanes we get?

seems there isn't a GOP plan, idea or bill he doesn't embrace!

March 30, 2010
Obama ready to kick start Gulf oil drilling
http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2010/03/obama-ready-to-kick-start-gulf-oil-drilling.html
WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Wednesday will announce a broad new push for domestic oil drilling that could include the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Details obtained by the St. Petersburg Times and other news organizations indicate the Interior Department proposal could be the strongest push yet to open up drilling off Florida's coast. But steps would be taken to keep rigs far enough offshore (125 miles or more) and away from military areas.

The new zones would fall under a five-year plan that would require extensive study. But Obama is signaling to Congress that he is willing to move on the sensitive issue as a way of advancing a sprawling energy and climate bill, expected to include drilling, through the Senate.

Obama will announce the proposal along with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, the theme being energy security. Florida once had a united political front against drilling but some lawmakers have moderated their views under a big push by the GOP.

[Egnever]

8. Write him

[Rage Inc.]

6. That would be 10 more than Dubya!

[mackerel]

7. Do people still write letters?

[Egnever]

9. Cool story

Thanks for posting it was an intereting read.

[pundaint]

10. He's already taken full credit for being a reader. Now it is only about the policies he champions,

and the policies he takes no action on, or opposes. We don't elect readers, we elect leaders. Is he leading in the direction you wish to go, and is he effective in his leadership?

[NecklyTyler]

11. The Idiot Son made it an objective to learn 10 letters a day

He got all the way up to learning the complete alphabet a couple of times, but forgot the whole thing on a drunken binge. The vowels always gave him trouble. Bush just couldn't master the letter 'a' as being vowel

[Lasher]

12. I wonder if he's ever read anything here.

Anyway it's good of him to read people's letters.

[Island Blue]

13. Bush read 10 letters a day too.

A ... B ... C ... D ... F ... G ... J ... Q ... S ... Z. Whew. Presidentin' is hard werk.

Very nice story btw. Thanks for posting!

[llmart]

16. LOL:)

[nightrain]

14. apparently 10 isn't sufficient. bubble still exists.

[JackintheGreen]

18. Bubbles are easy to get trapped in

and hard to get out of. At least he's making an effort.

Academics live in bubbles. I know, because I am one.

Blue collar workers live in bubbles, too. I know, because until August 2008 I was one.

DUers live in bubbles. Oh my god, do they live in bubbles. Just different bubbles from freepers.


I appreciate your cynicism, and share it to a large extent, but there is credit to be given here.

[Myrina]

22. ... depends on who's selecting those 10 letters he reads ...

... could be a mighty influential filtering mechanism if they only send him one-side of any set of opinions, based on which way they want him to decide ...

[snooper2]

23. If you would have READ above...

they are randomaly selected letters...

Which is what I would want as well, just grab 10 random letters off the stack...

[zipplewrath]

25. YOU should read

They are NOT randomly selected. There is a review process with criteria, much of it subjective, and they are SPECIFICALLY selected for their content.


"As Stickel read through her stack, she looked for compelling pieces ..."


"..he spread them across a table to choose Obama's 10..."

"He wanted a representative sample..."

"On one typical afternoon, Kelleher selected a diverse collection for the folder: an e-mail supporting the use of reconciliation for health-care legislation, and another opposing it..."

"... just the kind of story that Kelleher guessed his boss would appreciate"


He is still in the bubble. His staff, the people who create the bubble, are reading and selecting these letters with intent.

[snooper2]

26. "Per your request, we have attached 10 pieces of unvetted correspondence addressed to you."

"Per your request, we have attached 10 pieces of unvetted correspondence addressed to you."

Why the hell they add that?

[zipplewrath]

27. Because it wasn't "vetted".

Do you know what that word means? That has nothing to do with selection at random.

i.e. They don't know anything about the person that WROTE it.

They DO know what it is about, what subject it addresses, and whether is supports or opposes the presidents positions, the chief of staff's position, the staffer that is involved in the selection process.......

[Starbucks Anarchist]

33. If he was truly in a bubble, they'd only show him letters agreeing with him.

Like those staged town hall meetings Bush had.

[Uncle Joe]

34. Or letters that only criticized him from one pole of the political spectrum.

Ie; Only conservative criticism regarding HCR while liberal or progressive criticism is left alone.

This would distort his political center of gravity influencing him to be believe his policy is far more liberal than it is.

I don't know if this is the case in regards to the letters given to him, but it's certainly the case in overwhelming corporate media coverage.

[Myrina]

28. Right. I believe everything I read from the gov't.

:eyes: How's that turnip truck you rode in on?

[Botany]

15. Way to go Ms. Cline

"Hope this letter finds you in great health and happiness,"

Fighting cancer, fighting to pay bills, and being a mother but still she finds time to be nice.

[varelse]

17. Catch me, please

I'm falling back in love with this President :P

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. Good photos -by Sarah Viosin- also! Thanks for posting.

[Drops_not_Dope]

20. Nice story about the 10 letters a day

but the NY Times already did that story April 19, 2009.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/us/politics/20letters.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=Ashley%20Parker&st=cse



Mike Kelleher, the director of the White House Office of Correspondence, uses a white board to keep a rough tally of mail sorted by subject.

[superconnected]

30. Hey, that picture says email, too, on that white board.

[DeeDeeNY]

24. Too bad he doesn't log into DU

He probably gets a disproportionate amount of letters from Repukes.

[superconnected]

29. What an awesome man, glad he's president.

[superconnected]

31. just a few fun points about the handwriting - I like that his signature is big

instead of really small - how many presidents get by the time they leave office.

I don't like that the O in Obama looks like a target.

I like the figure 8 g's - flexible and creative, the spacing - he lets contact with people happen, his high i dots - hope and it's not pie in the sky high, and the coherency - he's very able to communicate. I also like the intelligent connections like the t crosses that are connected.

I don't like that the last letter of words keep dropping at the end - it's the beginning of not seeing hope but overall he doesn't have a problem. He has some tics -ie on the y's - sex zone but it looks more like he's trying to move forward and get it over with.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

36. graphologist's perspective!

Interesting!

[semillama]

32. Anyone catch the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference in this story? n/t