an open letter to hillary clinton...

dear mrs. clinton,

hi there. i hope that this note finds you well. my purpose in writing to you today is...well, to be quite honest, i don't quite know if there's a delicate way of telling you why i felt compelled to write to you. i've never written to you before, nor have i ever been significantly enamored or repulsed by you to manufacture the motivation to do such a thing. however, recent events that have taken place in the infancy stages of the presidential campaign have fueled the motivation that had been previously lacking and the thought just popped into my head on a random thursday afternoon...

"i think i'll write a letter to hillary clinton."

i suppose that a brief introduction would be fitting at this point and i should start by telling you that i'm a registered republican. i have been since i registered to vote when i turned 18. i am however, far from any sort of republican party loyalist. in october of 1992 your husband bill came to lafayette, louisiana in the waning days of that year's presidential campaign. he spoke at a campaign rally attended by what the local newspaper estimated were 10,000 people and at some point in his speech he looked out into the crowd and saw the face of a young college student who was holding up a sign that read "young republican for clinton." he pointed out the young college student to the crowd and thanked him for following the courage of his convictions and offered him up as reason why he would win the election against the first president bush, because people like that young college student are the ones that a presidential candidate needed to appeal to in order to win.

that young college student by the way, was me.

i tell you this solely to establish the fact that though i may be registered as a republican my vote in 2008, as it is in any election for any office, is completely up for grabs. i am rock-solidly part of the the american electorate that sits squarely in the middle of the road of the ideological spectrum, the part of the american electorate that refuses to vote blindly for a candidate based solely on political party affiliation, the part of the american electorate that you or anyone else nominated by either party seeking the presidency needs to woo in order to take the prize.

which gets me back to the point of my writing to you. i don't really know how to articulate this without sounding like an epic asshole, but i believe that there are just some instances in life where radical, brutal honesty is entirely necessary, and this is one of those times.

you're creeping me out.

seriously you are.

i was talking to a friend about you earlier yesterday and i made mention of the creeping out thing and how i could never vote for you as long as i my intuition was sending out distress signals like that. my friend asked what it was specifically about you that creeped me out and then, almost as if on cue, a video clip popped up on cnn from a recent town hall style meeting and it just hit me right then and there.

i can smell the calculation coming off of you.

and frankly, it's not a faint smell. it's pretty heavy and i'm pretty sure that lots of others have picked up the same unpleasant odor. any time you make a speech, an appearance, or grant an interview, your words are so carefully chosen and the method is which you deliver your message is so blatantly orchestrated and contrived, it's as if we can see the wheels turning in your head as your brain searches through it's database for the perfect focus-group approved answer to whatever question is presented to you.

you see, here's the deal. the modern american electorate is not as stupid as so many of the political "experts" you surround yourself with apparently believe. the proliferation of the internet, blogs, the availability of multiple news sources available in real time, etc., has made us pretty darn savvy.

the most disturbing thing i've witnessed out of all of this is your complete unwillingness to just publicly acknowledge regret for voting to authorize the war in iraq, presumably out of a fear of being labeled a "flip-flopper". you have been asked repeatedly by journalists and by common folk that you've met along the campaign trail if you harbor regrets for your vote, if you could do it over again what would you do. you have consistently evaded giving a straight answer and you are beginning to appear ridiculous because of it. it looks as though you and your advisers are hoping that by continuing to give evasive answers that the questions will just go away.

let me let you in on a little secret...they're not. they will only intensify as a matter of fact.

can i offer up some advice? free of charge. no "consulting" fees necessary. here it goes...

the next time the question comes up, which will likely be soon, just look directly into the camera and say these words. and when you say them don't be afraid to appear weak and frail, i promise that we won't hold it against you.

"there is not a day of my life that goes by that i do not regret voting in favor of authorizing the war in iraq. each and everyday i think of those brave young men and women who have died and in doing so have given the ultimate sacrifice to their country. i am truly, deeply sorry."

it's that simple. do this and the issue will fade away into the rear-view mirror of presidential politics. defy this at your peril. again, i'm not a political professional, just a guy who hails originally from one of the reddest of the red states who now resides in one of the bluest of the blue states, which happens to give me a pretty good insight into how americans think in 2007. i really believe to have my finger on the pulse of the changing face of the american electorate.

gone are the days where we americans expected perfection in our candidates. gone are the days of camelot.

to the contrary, it creeps us out.

we want people who are strong and qualified but who have exhibited some of the traits of a normal human being, of a normal american.

we're flawed.

we've experimented with recreational drugs in our youths.

we've struggled mightily in relationships.

we've made errors in judgment for which we have regrets.

but you know what, we also forgive. america loves a comeback story and we love to forgive. it gives us hope and i think we all know that there have been times in our lives when we have fucked up and we needed to ask for forgiveness, and it will probably happen again at some point. we want our candidates to be more of a reflection of ourselves, only better.

do i dare mention the names of barack obama and rudy giuliani? sorry if by doing so ruffles any feathers but i think that both of those guys serve notice to the respect and admiration that we as americans give to authenticity. both of these guys are people who stepped up to the plate long ago and acknowledged past misgivings and personal bumps in the road, and i think that doing so has endeared them with the american people. it's why they're so popular and both have such a broad base of appeal.

authenticity shows courage, and courage translates into strong leadership, and strong leadership translates into what we perceive will make an effective president.

so do yourself and all of us a favor and drop the plastic act. fire any adviser who attempts to tell you otherwise. stop paying so much attention to focus groups and opinion polls.

just be real.

just be you.

just be...AUTHENTIC!

we'll like you and respect you so much more, even when we may disagree with some of your stances on policy. i'm convinced that we might have a president gore or kerry in the white house right now if they had followed the same advice. paying too much attention to advisers and focus groups and failing to exude authenticity was their downfall.

they creeped us out.