Dear Mr. President,
I know you are busy preparing for tonight's debate. I trust that the debate coaches and communications experts are helping you to strike the proper balance between passion and persuasion, between fact and flash, between fire and ice.
But before you step out onto that stage tonight and shake hands with Mitt Romney, I wanted to make one final plea for the man I hope to see on camera:
This guy
Obama keynote speech DNC 2004 Convention Source: AP/Ron Edmonds
In 2004, he said this:
[A]longside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people.
If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child.
If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription and having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.
If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work.
It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one.
As you know better than most, politics is messy. Progress comes with a price that seems far too high at the time the deal is done. And in these extraordinary times, you have had to make some extraordinary deals. These are devil-filled details with which all of us, at one time or another, have found fault.
There will be a tremendous and nearly irresistible siren song to be cynical tonight. Resist it.
You are being exhorted by the "village people" to come out swinging like a gladiator for show and blood-sport. Ignore them.
Do what your heart calls you deeply to do: LISTEN and connect with the average people who will be asking questions of you tonight.
In this age of faithlessness, give us something to BELIEVE in again.
In this age of hopelessness, INSPIRE us with calls to action and salvation.
In this age of hyperpolitics and division, UNITE us in direction.
In this age of leaderless social networking, LEAD us by your own example.
Our courage and your destiny depend on this.