This is a letter I sent to US President Barack Obama today.
I had just watched a couple of his weekly radio address, in particular the one from 28th February 2009 where he is about to release the US federal budget, containing two key elements: health care reform, and support for the green energy industry.
This budget puts him in direct conflict with two of the largest industries (and the billions they spend on protecting their businesses) health insurance companies, and the oil companies.
My message to him: he needs to stop using a teleprompter – it kills the passion in his message.
Dear President Obama,
I just watched your one of February 28, 2009 weekly speech on Youtube.
My advice: Stop using the teleprompter. You loose all the power of your message.
You may have the brightest minds around you, logically telling you that a perfect speech is a perfect result.
It is not.
There’s no soul, there’s no heart.
This was the message in which you said “…I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this: So am I.”
Great words, and exactly the position I know you are taking and what needs to be taken in a time like now. A time when it appears that most sensible people have taken to the sidelines to merely watch the increasing parody and charade of greed and gluttony devour the world around us.
But you said these words, especially “So Am I” without any depth. There was no passion. There was no soul.
Stop using a teleprompter – it takes the passion out of you. Have paper notes in front of you… Become real again. (Move from being in your head to being in your body, if that makes sense to you).
Become real in a world where plastic news readers read plastic lines to an audience which is becoming increasing more and more short term focused, more plastic?
Keep using the teleprompter and you’ll become like a news reader: plastic. And you will loose credibility as a man who can take action; as one who can make things happen.
You are championing long range, long term strategies. Real strategies that live long past last week’s Dow movement or the weekend’s baseball results. Strategies that live into the coming decades. In fact strategies that I believe will mark your term in office as the turning point for the America, and as a result the rest of the world. You need to come across as a person who is real and can carry out these strategies.
This is what I watched.
May you have the best success imaginable.
Warm regards
by Jeremiah Josey, September 2009
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