Yo, Barack!

I donated, as your records will show, multiple times to your campaign. I also volunteered a significant portion of my time to your campaign. I am completely disappointed in you. You have either sold us, your supporters, out or, at the very least have failed to even approach fulfilling your commitments. You have not end the wars, you've escalated them. You have not ended "don't ask, don't tell". You bailed out a bunch of rich people and have done nothing for Joe Average. Even if some form of health care reform goes through, it will be a disappointingly watered down version of health care reform. You said you weren't concerned about politics as usual and getting re-elected. You said you were going to do the right thing and that if in doing so, you only got one term, so be it. Now, all your moves seem to be about playing it safe, playing it in the middle, so you can get re-elected. You said you were all about hope and change, but mostly your administration has been all about maintaining the status quo and I, therefore, am finding it difficult to remain hopeful.

Let me be clear, I was not one of these pie-eyed followers who thought that just because you won, everything would just easily be changed overnight. That being stated, you haven't really tried and the result is that we're getting NOWHERE. Progress could be made, but not without making a real commitment to it! Frankly, your strategy of playing it safe is the one thing that will prevent you from getting re-elected, as those who hate you (the tea baggers, birthers, etc.) are never going to support you, regardless of how much you try to appease them, and people like me, who helped make your victory possible, will not be giving our precious time and money to you again unless you begin to make some real progress on the commitments you made in your campaign.

So be bold. Make some real changes, some real progress happen. Then the country will be improved and your own political stock will rise. As much as Americans give lip service to the ethos of individuality, the fact is they're mostly followers. They are also, in general, resistant to change. Throughout American history significant changes have rarely occurred from the bottom up. No, leaders, be they politicians, the Supreme Court and so on, have forged change and then the people have followed. And usually fairly quickly, too. Many things that were unthinkable when I was a little child are accepted as being commonplace, no big deal now by the majority of Americans. Acting boldly is not going to be an act of over reaching that will cause your political demise. Despite how it might seem now, the majority of the people will get behind you and these issues that now seem so inflammatory will soon become virtually nothing. And, again, both the Country and you will thrive!

It is only by maintaining the status quo that both you and the Country will suffer, because we really do need change and the coalition you put together to win in '08 will not be there to help you defeat the whack jobs on the right in '12, if you don't deliver on the commitments that we all were working for.

You want my money and my support? Sorry, not until I see some return on the investment I've already made in progress, hope, and change!

Sincerely,

Steve Taiclet