Dear President Obama,
Welcome to San Francisco and the fundraiser at the Westin St. Francis. Congratulations on your Nobel Peace Prize, as well. Unfortunately, I will not be there to greet you.
President Obama
I write this with a mixture of pain and nervousness. Pain because I don't intend harm to the political campaign all of us have worked to build. Nervousness because I'm not sure the people at the Democratic Party - nor some of my friends in it - will like what I'm about to write, even though it's not personal and my hope is that it, in some small way, helps to get us back on the right track.
I think we've fallen off of it.
President Obama, the problem for me started when as a member of the gathering's "host committee" I was made aware of the "ask" levels for those we wanted to attend: $30,000 per couple, and $1,000 and $500.
At first I was under the hubris-fueled impression that I could get a lot of my friends to pony up those bucks. But the economic something we always talk about - the worst economy since the Great Depression - has hit everyone.
People I'm used to seeing "do well", as they say, are struggling. And while I have more work, I have to work harder to maintain the flow of it. It's hard for everyone.
But what really got me was the memory of how we got to where we are: the millions of ordinary people who gave a few cents here, or a buck there, or $10 over there, and all online. Remember all of those people who were so jazzed to see you when you first came out for the Boxer function after you annouced you were running for President?
If you need a reminder, here it is:
What happened to our campaign based on them?
Mr. President, I thought we were supposed to transform the Democratic Party into that kind of fundraising organization: the one based on "the little person" or what we call "the common American."
Mr. President, we - not at this point in our history - should forget about them. Not now. Not when so many people are suffering can we afford to go back to the big money, fat cat ways of campaigns past. People - Democrats fighting to make ends meet - will not get it. Republicans that would normally come over to us would be turned off.
Maybe the cost was to scare off the "riff-raff" but Mr. President you've got the Secret Service and people like me. I will personally kick the ass of anyone who tried to harm you in my presence and you can count on that.
Mr. President, the DNC didn't get just how bad California's economy was. We tried to tell them. Maybe now they've got a clue now, but it would be real nice if they would listen to us first before planning these events. To have those levels of "ask", then hear people - friends - react with a mixture of interest and sadness was too much to go through for me. Plus, I've got other spending priorities of late: a Mom in Georgia who needs and gets my help first and foremost.
So Mr. President, I'll be elsewhere Thursday night. I hope you see this. I hope this never happens again.
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