Open letter to Barack Obama
June 18th, 2009, 8:59 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.
This is a letter written by Lou Pritchett, a former vice president at Procter & Gamble, to The New York Times.
As of Thursday, the Times has not published this letter, but it has been making the rounds on the Internet.
Snopes and other hoax-watching sites have confired this is a legitimate letter written by Pritchett. It states succinctly what many Americans are feeling these days.
Some of you may have already seen this, but I thought I would share it anyway:
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
By Lou Pritchett
Dear President Obama:
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
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.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.
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.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
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.
You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
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
Note: Lou Pritchett is a former vice president of Procter & Gamble whose career at that company spanned 36 years before his retirement in 1989, and he is the author of the 1995 business book, “Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat.”
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Lou Pritchett:
You scare me because you sound just like Limbaugh, Hannity,O’Reilly, Beck and all those gullible minds that feed on this quaret’s daily dose of right-wing propaganda and cliché-ridden inanities. Got news for you Lou. Americans are smarter than you think. What you can’t accept is that the reason an African American is now president is that the once proud Republican Party is now in the hands of regional minorities dominated by old white Southern fogies. Not only are these doddering reactionaries bought and paid for by the same special interests, they still can’t accept that civil rights is now the law of the land. Worse still, along with Bush, Cheney and gang, they all failed this county so miserably during the eight years they controlled the executive, congressional and supreme court branches of government that American voters finally said ‘enough.’ That’s why Obama is president, Lou. Get over it. Your side lost. Thank God.
Mike Martinez,
Proud Independent
Dallas, TX
PS: Your witless little barbs not withstanding, all that you, Limbaugh, Hannity,O’Reilly, and Beck really have to offer is fear.
Kudos to to Mike Martinez.
Heck, I’m in Dallas, too. Mike — let’s go have a beer and figure out which Procter & Gamble products to boycott!
Go to my blog, look me up.
I received a copy of Lou Pritchett’s absurd letter yesterday via email, and returned it to sender as follows:
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Written by Lou Pritchett
**Rebutted by Randy Johnson
Dear President Obama:
**So far so good…
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
**Translation: “you’re black!”
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
**That’s Pritchett’s fault. He could have known plenty about Obama months before he was president if he wasn’t so lazy. Obama’s biography is much more complete than the official George Bush Biography, and Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope explains his political philosophy quite extensively. Also Obama actually wrote both books himself. Since he was elected he’s been under a microscope like no other president in history. Bigots “don’t know” because they choose to not know. They’re too busy being afraid to actually learn about what they criticize.
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.
**Barack attended college on student loans and scholarships. He only recently completed paying off his student loans after 2005 with proceeds from the two books he wrote. Barack’s housing situation in New York, Chicago, and while attending college were quite modest. After graduation he made good money for awhile at a law firm (big surprise considering he earned his way academically to become head of the Harvard Law Review) but he left that law firm to become a community organizer during which time he lived a very modest life just a couple blocks from the poorest neighborhoods of Chicago. Only after his books became best sellers and he got into politics did he begin to live an “upscale” lifestyle.
**I think when people like Pritchett say “no visible signs of support” they mean “You don’t come from a rich family like George Bush and you didn’t marry a multi-millionaire beer heiress like John McCain, so you scare me.”
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
**Barack was born and raised in Hawaii until he was 6, then his stepfather (who was working for a US oil company until his visa ran out) moved him and his mother to Indonesia where he was very much an outsider. His mother tutored him there daily so he wouldn’t get behind his American schoolmates, and primarily because she wanted him to have an American education she sent him back to Hawaii when he was 10. He was primarily raised by his Kansas born white grandparents after that. It’s all in his biography for anyone interested enough to read it.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
**Ohhhhh he got Obama with that one! Once again Barack, you need to be more like George Bush. George ran two companies (right into the ground, with daddy’s money.) Note: Running a company doesn’t qualify you to run a country, unless of course you believe in the wonderful teachings of Fascism.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.
**WHOLLY CRAP! Are you kidding? After “six deferment” Cheney, and reserve deserter Bush Pritchett dares to criticize Barack for not serving in the military?
You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.
**I can list several times where Barack has apologized for the smallest of mistakes and times where he’s taken the blame for the actions of others in his campaign and administration. I don’t think Pritchett can site many if any examples to back up this ridiculous personal attack.
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.
**If by “aligned” Pritchett means “lived in the same city as” “went to the church of” or “attended the same fundraiser as,” and if by extremist you mean an angry old preacher, a professor who over 40 years ago did something terrible, or a bum in Chicago politics who every Chicago politician has had to deal with at some point then he has a point, except that Obama has publicly denounced the immoral, unlawful and angry actions of every one of those people.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.
**See 2 sections up: America has lacked humility and ‘class’, and has been blaming and attacking other countries for years now. The world rightly distrusts our government. Barack is simply and very smartly re-earning that trust across the globe, making Americans at home and abroad safer. Hey, we don’t have to pretend to be Canadians to travel anymore!!
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
**The private sector has never been more unchecked than during these past 8 plus years (Halliburton, Enron, Blackwater, etc) Our tax dollars have been going to pay private contractors trillions of dollars, and private companies have pirated what were once public utilities to the point of decimating many of them. The private sector has brought us to the brink of economic collapse, and now only the government can fix it. Unfortunately however that private sector has squirreled away most of the “lost” money, and now the middle class must replace it little by little until we get out of this mess.
**By “European style country” Pritchett means a country that doesn’t legally recognize corporations as “people” as we do here in America. This small difference between us and our European friends allows corporations to dominate American politics with their “free speech dollars” dwarfing actual peoples voices in Washington DC.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
**Pritchett and many like him fear that if we do what every other modern industrial country has done and provide health care to all our citizens average people will have access to health care and as a consequence billionaire insurance and pharma CEO’s will have to go back to being mere millionaires. We do not by any measure have the best health care in the world, we only have the most expensive health care in the world.
You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
**Another Ohhhhh! …..Clean renewable energy is truly scary! It’s funny how he says “Our own vast oil, coal etc….” as though the wind is owned by some other country. Or maybe that’s his problem – You can’t own the wind.
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.
**Golden egg? I think Pritchett means golden parachute for all those CEO friends of his.
You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.
**”Extortion” to Pritchett maybe, but most of us would call it “Regulations.”
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
**Remember Pritchett and the Republicans screaming for Bush to stop spending all that money between 2001 and 2008? Oh you don’t? Me neither. I guess trying to save the economy just isn’t as “responsible” as blowing shit up, and giving tax breaks to the filthy rich.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
**This one doesn’t even pass the laugh test.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
**Another one that doesn’t even pass the laugh test. Bush and Cheney sure thought they were omnipotent (having complete and unchallengeable authority) but they sure weren’t omniscient (having total all encompassing knowledge) were they?
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
**The “liberal media” claim is getting old. Conservative talk radio dwarfs liberal talk radio across the country, and the corporate TV stations make sure that liberal views are kept in check. Only MSNBC is pushing the liberal envelope. The others cower benieth the corporate machine, while FOX (Faux) “news” actually fired 2 reporters for “refusing to lie as directed by FOX on the air” and then FOX won in court the “right to lie” over the public airways.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
**See above: FOX won in court the “right to lie” over the public airways. And Rush is a proven liar (see Al Franken’s book Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot.)
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
**I haven’t seen a more conciliatory and compromising president since Jimmy Carter.
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.
**Ah, just as I suspected Pritchett is paranoid and delusional.
Lou Pritchett
**That part’s true his name is Lou!
TRUE – CHECK: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/youscareme.asp
**Yes, Snopes confirmed that Pritchett wrote the letter. Political hacks write false accusations to newspapers every day. Reputable newspapers like the NY Times throw them in the garbage. I have to ask why he didn’t send his to other newspapers. I expect the answer is that they all would have rejected him, but the NY Times rejection gives him more publicity. Also and most importantly while Snopes confirmed that Pritchett wrote the letter, Snopes does not say that even a single accusation in the letter is true.
Reference…
There are one or two references of this including…
I would also like to know where his original birth certificate. Is his Aunt still here illegally>