An Open Letter To Lou Pritchett

Meet America's Scaredy Cat.

Sometimes, I stall for things to write about, and it is times like these when I appreciate the fact that I have friends with very different views than me about things. One of them recently posted on his Facebook stream a link to Lou Pritchett's "An Open Letter to President Obama."

Who is Lou Pritchett? He's a former Proctor & Gamble executive, and apparently a very, very scared man.

Why do I say that? Below, I'll print his letter (his stuff is in bold), with my responses to his maniacally stupid rant at each point. With respect to Mr. Pritchett (though he hardly deserves it), this letter was written in May 2009, which is worth considering when reading this.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

I'm going to take the high road here, and not assume it has anything to do with President Obama's skin color that scares Mr. Pritchett. It's also worth pointing out that, as a man in his sixties, you really shouldn't be so easily frightened.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

The guy has written TWO auto-biographies, his background is well documented, he talks about his background all the time…I read his first biography years before he even ran for office, and since then I've learned a great deal more. The fact that you know "nothing" about him signifies only one thing - you clearly don’t WANT to know anything about him.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

Mr. Pritchett, have you not heard of scholarships? Or of the fact that Mrs. Obama was a successful lawyer, and Mr. Obama a published author and member of Congress. This is the kind of sleazy, baseless allegation that Mr. Pritchett is quite fond of, however ... stay tuned.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

Congratulations, sir – you are officially a xenophobe! This is also untrue (unless Hawaii no longer counts as America), but even if it were, it’s nice to have someone in a position of leadership who understands the global community. It's also worth pointing out that "culturally," Americans from Florida (where Mr. Pritchett now resides), Manhattan, Wasilla and San Francisco are all pretty different...but they're still all Americans. Way to go, Lou, this one is genuinely offensive.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

This means that every President aside from George W. Bush scared you, too, Lou. It's also worth pointing out that that guy bankrupted the companies he ran. But apparently that isn't cause for wetting the bed.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core..

This eliminates most candidates for office. Also, Bush barely served in the Air Guard, and Cheney had five deferments, doing everything possible NOT to serve. How did they understand the military? (It's also worth pointing out that nothing on Mr. Pritchett's biography suggests that heserved in the military, which sounds about right.)

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

Of course, this grand overstatement doesn't cite a single example ... but I'm assuming this goes back to President Obama actually mentioning that he was left with a gigantic mess by the former administration. Apparently, in order to be "classy," he should just grin and bear it and take slings and arrows from dipshits like Lou ... without pointing out the simple facts of how we got here. Heaven forbid the country should learn a lesson from the catastrophic administration from 2000-2008.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
Also totally untrue. I’m assuming he’s talking about William Ayres (who he knew in the Chicago crowd and did not spend half a year with, much less half his life – and his former priest Jeremiah Wright who he has publicly denounced and severed ties with.) Interestingly, I don’t remember Republican outrage for associating with people like Pat Buchanan, James Dobson and others who on a daily basis say horrible, vicious and hateful things.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

Really? I don’t even know what this means, but it doesn’t make sense. People who blame America don’t want to spend years trying to fix it. I assume this is a reaction to not being a cowboy saying “bring it on,” and occasionally admitting that our country has made a mistake and has room to improve. President Bush was awful for many things, but failing to admit a mistake was high on the list. This is a welcome improvement.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

Sigh. Regulation, and trying to fix broken systems doesn’t mean this. It's worth pointing out that TARP was launched under the prior administration (oops, there I go being classless and blaming others) and that the only other instance of this saved the automobile industry (and about 4,000,000 US jobs in the process). It's also worth acknowledging that the government loans are either paid back already or well on their way ... but why let facts get in the way of a good ghost story? Obama is scary!

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

Well fine, have this one – even though the American system prevented this from happening. So sleep easy, pansy boy.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

Our "vast" oil reserves are a finite resource, and drilling elsewhere - even aside from the current tragedy in the Gulf - isn't going to change that in any real way. Only a complete idiot would think that it is silly to look at alternate sources of energy, as that leaves us vulnerable to countries where the oil is still plentiful. (Memo to Lou: These are those places in the Middle East, where there are actually genuine things to be afraid of, though not most of the citizens. We'll discuss this later.) This is a national security concern as much as anything else, and being scared about it not only makes you weak on national security, it makes you an idiot.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

No…no he doesn’t. He wants to return to the tax rates of the 1990s, perhaps the biggest explosion in capitalism, free enterprise and economic development this country has seen since the post-WWII era. This is the claim of someone upset that he might personally pay a higher tax rate, because he got a disproportionately large tax CUT from former President Bush. Most personal income rates are now lower for 95% of the citizens than they have been in years. But again, why let facts get in the way of a good hissy fit?

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

Um, those would be the banks and corporations that would have dissolved without governmental help, and President Obama is forcing them to act like corporations that owe something to their shareholders, of which sadly the US government was forced to be one. Guess what? These almost all worked out well for both the corporation and the government. I guess a world that wouldn’t scare you would have the government bailout the banks and auto corporations but doesn’t hold them accountable for what they do with the money.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

Or, perhaps, your world has one where you let all these companies fail and bring down the US economy even further than President Bush could do. (I’m sure, quite sure, that you would then actually be “scared” that Obama let that happen. MORON.)

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

This might be the dumbest thing on the list! President Obama might do this more than any other president in history. The GOP Congress barely offers up any proposals besides “Do what Bush did!” which DOES NOT WORK. But regardless, how does this compare to the former administration who intentionally disregarded opposing viewpoints? President Obama has three Republicans in his cabinet, routinely talks to those who disagree with him and … well, if you don’t know that already, it’s because you don’t want to.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

Oh, just FUCK OFF.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

No, no they do not. Of course, if you mean that the media treats President Obama differently than Fox News does, well ... I'll grant you that point.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

How, exactly, does he want to do this? By pointing out when they say hateful and wrong things? How does he want to silence them? Way to create a scare tactic with no basis in fact, Lou.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Moron.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

In conclusion, sir, are a big fat ‘fraidy cat. It saddens me that people can read this tripe and actually think it has merit. It literally has none.