I’ve got lots of good advice, and don’t feel like I can fit it all into one letter. You should make plans to fly to Austin once a month to come have very important meetings at Uchi.

On the way back to D.C., we can fly over Bush’s house in Dallas and throw toilet paper at it from the sky.

OK – here’s my letter:

Dear President Obama,

You probably put this letter at the bottom of the stack since I’m a conservative and all, but if Rick Warren can edge his way into the inauguration, then I probably will get some of your time during your third year, at the latest.

So, while I obviously don’t expect you to abandon everything you’ve run on and your party affiliation, I do want to ask that you continue to listen to and consider all points of view on each policy and situation. You’ve done a great job of this, so far – better than any President I can remember – and I really appreciate that.

Also, I really value the idea of the change theme you ran on during your campaign in regards to altering the political tone of Washington. As someone who votes Republican every so often, I’ve been grouped with all number of horrible people and things. I appreciate your desire to rise above name-calling and (let’s call it what it is) hate and move towards a discussion about what we need to do (or undo) to get our country to the next level.

Since we disagree on most points of governance, I’ll simply ask that you continue to be as good of a listener as you are a speaker, and we’ll get through these years quite well – satisfied with our right to disagree and working together to make this world a better place.

Lastly, you’re family seems awesome. Michelle and you seem to be doing an incredible job as parents. Keep up the good job as husband and father – this might be one of the strongest examples you set during your time in office.

Thanks!
Randy

PS If I could get in on that jimjams thing, I’d be grateful

I did not know Obama was a lefty. Good advice there, Mandy!

I feel awkward trying to think of what to ask our president to do knowing that in a few months I won’t be here to enjoy it. As a future expat I would like him to do something more positive about the face of America. I think that he will accomplish healing some of our wounded relationships with foreign nations.

I agree that we need to focus on adding/increasing arts, both in school and in the general public. To help accomplish this and to free up time to do so, we need to dramatically reduce the focus and demand of standardized testing. When you have no time for enrichment activities our students aren’t learning. They have 100 days of crammed teaching and once the test is over, it’s forgotten. None of their learning has been enriched.

Equal rights for everyone. Regardless of sex, race, religion or lifestyle. It took over 100 years to have a black president, please don’t let it take that long for my friends to have the right to marry whomever they love.

Keep being real. I cried at the dance because they seemed so in love and so normal. I don’t want to see stiff formality in my president. I want to continue seeing the every day guy who represents me.

If the Obamas want a new dog I have one who needs a home. She’d love having the run of the White House.

Second, I’m sorry if my fellow gays are getting a little too up in arms with you right now… I don’t have a problem with you including Rick Warren. It was a fairly broadly Christian speech, with no mention of his personal politics. You’ve been totes cool in saying you’ll get rid of that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” dealie, and have publicly supported legalizing Civil Unions, so thanks for that. (BTW, marriage would also be super rad, but let’s do this in steps if middle America can’t stomach it yet.)

Thirdly, I have a couple of requests:
1. I’m with Posh. Please give more public funding for arts. If we made less bombs, we could teach more kids to play music, or support some of America’s creative minds. You’ll enjoy a great sculpture a lot more than a heat seeking something or other.
2. You seem like you really like your family, and are really nice to them. Please keep doing that. You’ve got to face them again as a non-President in eight years. It’ll be a lot nicer for you if you haven’t alienated them yet.
3. You have picked a lot of smart people to advise you, be in your Cabinet, etc. Take their advice, but remember, you were voted smartest of them all, so do it your way. We just had eight years of Presidency by committee because the one dude that WAS President didn’t know what he was doing, and you see how well that turned out.
4. As a fellow lefty, be careful wearing those dry clean only suit shirts, and signing all of the awesome bills you will no doubt be enacting. You can drag your sleeve through the ink pretty easily being a southpaw. At least keep a Tide Pen in your jacket.

Glad I voted for you,
Mandy

Dear President Obama,

Dubs true, Chandler, whose parents must have been really big Friends fans. Could that To Do list BE any more perfect? (I also really like that he included the part about hand sanitizer. You don’t know where that office has been!)

I LOVE THE BABY LEMUR SO MUCH AAAAH. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, Sarah, but as an anthro major at UT we get the opportunity to study UT’s blue-eyed black lemurs at the ARC (we’re the only North American institution to have blue-eyed black lemurs. Dr Overdorff brought them with her from their home at Duke when she transferred over and Matt Cartmill still hasn’t forgiven her. Duke were bad caretakers, though; they allowed Newman [all the lemurs are named after famous blue-eyed people: Lamour, Newman, Sinatra, Tarantino and the baby, Lovett] to stay in the outside part of the habitat one cold night and he got frostbite and lost his tail!! This is a little anthro-related gossip for this blog, which I know you all must be enthralled by. Moving on). I love lemurs so, so much – it is my dream to spend a few weeks in Madagascar at some point when the hissing cockroaches (cause: ick.) migrate somewhere else.

Okay, here is my letter to our new President!!

Dear President Obama,

Hi! Thanks for winning! That made me pretty happy!

I know you’re just settling into your new digs, but that executive order to close Gitmo was pretty awesome. Usually on my second day of a new job, I’m still trying to find the coffee area and figure out which xerox printer to map to. I would get a complex that you’ve already managed to enact an order to close down an institution which stood as a direct opposite of the ideals upon which this country is based, but maybe you don’t know how to map to the Xerox printer yet. If you want, I can show you. I’m pretty good at it.

I know you won’t be a perfect leader, because no one is perfect, but I would like to strike a deal with you. If you promise to:

* always invoke diplomacy over bombs
* try to find a peaceful solution to the genocide which threatens so many nations and their people, but, above all, ACT to end these campaigns of terror
* increase aid to countries struggling with poverty and disease
* remember that we, too, struggle with poverty and disease
* create programs that will feed, educate and insure our nation’s children, without expecting them to sacrifice their dignity, morals or rights to privacy and happiness in return
* remember that your wife, your daughters and all women in this world are equal under the laws of man and nature, with the right to choose what happens to their own bodies, to work and play and educate themselves where they wish, and to be compensated equally at their jobs
* remember, too, that the state has no right to interfere with the love in a person’s heart or how they wish to express that love pubicly
* continue to raise your daughters to be adorable, polite, intelligent, empowered children
* keep looking at your wife with that mix of love and pride and, sometimes, a bit o’ lust in your eyes, cause it makes my tummy flutter

I promise to:

* be more directly involved in building my community
* give of my time, which I have in relative abundance, to increase the happiness, healthiness and quality of life of those around me
* be more patient with those I disagree with, and try to find common ground
* think of three nice things to say about America every day!!
* stop using: “well, at least we’re not north korea” as the third nice thing to say every day

Looking forward to working with you,
Erin

OH! And a letter for Michelle too. Cause we need to have words!

Dear First Lady Obama,

Hi!! First can you please give me the name of all of your designers. And also your shopping budget. And then can we talk about J.Crew’s spring collection?

Also, please remember that you, as Malia and Sasha’s mother, are teaching them how to grow up as intelligent, centered, powerful women. Lucky for us, you, as the First Lady, get to teach all the nation’s young girls how to do this. Please don’t shirk this duty, cause they could use someone like you to look up to.

Let’s talk kitten heels in contrast colors sometime.

LOVE YOU,
erin