
To Obama with Love, and Hate, and Desperation - sxyuan
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/magazine/what-americans-wrote-to-obama.html
======
vinhboy
A lot of people in this country really hates Obama. And it seems, when you
take out all the other ugliness, they base that hate on the idea that he is
not genuine.

> President Obama was the first to come up with a deliberate and explicit
> practice of 10 letters every day.

But reading things like this, and a myriad of other things about Obama, I
think that if you could scientifically quantify genuineness, Obama would rank
at the very top. So I find it really offensive when people attack the man on
his integrity.

You can attack his policy, but if you attack the man, I can not, and will not,
agree with you.

~~~
agumonkey
Seems like Obama was put on a spot more than other presidents. He could say
the right things, act the right way[1]; yet if at any point something negative
came (drones, nsa) he would be bashed generously. People expect A+ from him
and scream at an A-. The sad part is that Trump is said to have been elected
because he was felt like a true person; I understand their sentiment, his
mouth seems unfiltered, so he's a true nasty person but people still prefer
that to someone that looks like 90% good samaritan.

[1] you can find lots of videos where he would adress antagonistic crowds
peacefully and wisely. Lots of times where he showed caring (his behavior
toward his wife) and a sane personality (cracking turkey jokes with his
daugthers).

~~~
rdtsc
> Seems like Obama was put on a spot more than other presidents.

Another element there is the benchmark against which he set himself up for --
Hope and Change. I remember having a lot of hope and now after 8 years, it
feels kid of "meh". There were some good things, but also a lot of blunders. I
guess I shouldn't expect much from that political office.

Not sure about Trump. Having lived in the Rust Belt I can see how people there
understand and follow him. And I heard he just withdrew from TPP, not bad so
far.

------
nindalf
I wouldn't have considered myself an emotional person, but some of those
letters touched me deeply. The anonymous letter from the partner of a soldier
brought me to tears. I have often disagreed with Obama's policies and
criticised him for his actions on drone strikes and mass surveillance. However
I am now certain I could not do a better job than he did if I can't even read
all the mail he got without crying.

Edit - the rationale behind some of his decisions is clearer. For example, he
commuted more sentences than any other President. You would do that if you're
reading mail from inmates and their relatives and friends on a regular basis.
If you take the opposite approach and avoid such letters its much easier to
insulate yourself from "criminals", telling yourself that they probably
deserve to be where they are.

Similarly with engaging in the drone war and avoiding engagement in Syria. I
hate the fact that so many innocent Yemenis and Pakistanis died in the drone
war, but it makes sense that he would be much more cautious about deploying
boots on the ground if he was regualarly reading the mail sent by servicemen
and their families.

------
cyberferret
Very interesting read - I am halfway through it.

I wonder if the new POTUS will keep the same tradition of having 10 letters
each day added to his daily briefing?

NOTE: Not a snarky comment. Just genuinely curious query if this is a 'thing'
that all past presidents did, and future ones will?

~~~
general_ai
Do you really believe he had the time to read 10 letters every day? Even at 5
minutes per letter that'd take 50 minutes. I just don't see how that's
possible.

~~~
d23
I'm not sure why you're putting 5 minutes per letter in there. I'm sure he's a
well-read guy. It's not crazy to think he could get through a one page letter
in a minute or less.

~~~
general_ai
Some people receive responses, so if he wrote them himself you need to factor
that in as well.

~~~
hirsin
FTA - he sent notes back in the margins for responses, and only occasionally
wrote letters back personally.

------
sgentle
One of my favourite reads on politics in a long while. "These were people
writing, and you’re a person reading, and the president is a person."

But of course the president isn't just a person. The tone in his voice moves
the stock market, and the stroke of his pen can kill or save millions. And a
person is a person, but the people? They're a mass of voices so loud and
chaotic that you would go instantly mad if you could ever truly hear them all.

So the aloofness, the distance, the abstraction of governance is a symptom,
not a cause, of inhumanity. It's telling that to break through it in the
smallest way, just 10 letters to simulate a sense of personal connection
between the president and the people, takes "50 staff members, 36 interns and
a rotating roster of 300 volunteers".

Any time we talk about having a beer with the president, it's important to
remember that this isn't your buddy, this is the avatar of the world's most
powerful and dangerous political machinery. It's like a surgeon taking the
time to joke around with you before he describes how he's going to bisect your
ribcage. It's a nice gesture, but we still get our surgeons from medical
school, not clown college.

------
umberway
It seems to me (as an outsider) that people in the U.S.A. now more than ever
judge the President for what he symbolises. Perhaps this explains the power of
constitutional monarchy (not advocating one system over the other; just an
observation).

~~~
bigger_cheese
As someone who lives in a constitutional monarchy (Australia). The Royal
family is largely seen as a bit of an odd quirk the Queen's head is stamped on
the back of our coins but other than that it means very little to most people.
I honestly don't know the name of our current Governor General.

One thing that stands out to me is American's seem to have more respect
towards elected officials then we do here. For example the sample letters in
the article all address Obama as "Sir" or "Mr President". I cannot imagine
people addressing our Prime Minister that Formally/politely.

I think it is a cultural issue most people here tend to be very cynical about
government and distrustful of politicians.

~~~
umberway
>Queen's head is stamped on the back of our coins

Exactly. She's a symbol :-)

------
alistproducer2
I seriously hate political articles on HN. There are enough places in the net
where you can finger-argue with strangers. Can't we just let HN be a place
where we come to learn an talk about tech an tech business?

~~~
camel_Snake
Here's a simple solution: don't click the links or comments.

It's what everyone else does with article subjects they don't care for.

------
Tulip68
Damn I'm going to miss this guy.

I realize HN deserves a higher level of discourse, but it's just got to be
said: Fuck Drumpf.

