Dear Undecided Voter

I'm sorry, did I wake you? I know it's been four years since the last time you checked the news to find that a presidential race was in the final weeks, and much has happened since then. I thought it might be a good idea to help you get caught up, since I keep hearing that the fate of the nation rests in the hands of people who can name the winner of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, but can't name their own Congressman. Please know that I honor your sacrifice in giving up precious time that could be spent watching those human livestock shows, where a group of people scheme, back-stab, connive, and manipulate each other in order to find true love, but this is sort of important. You see, the country is imploding and the world is on fire. We sure could use your help.

Item: The bottom is falling out of American median income. During the recession, it fell from $54,489 in 2007 to $52,195 in 2009, after President Obama spent your grandchildren's inheritance on his much touted "stimulus" plan. Since then, the government has taken in more of your money and left the nation with a median income of $50,054 just last year. So while they take more, you get less. Is that the change you were hoping for? Meanwhile, the poverty rate in America has gone from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 15 percent last year as median household wealth declined 39 percent over the same time span. President Obama keeps saying that all of this is the legacy of Republican policies, as if the laws he signed over the last four years had no impact. In 1981, Ronald Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent...

Here is a version from a respondent on Ricochet.com to try that doesn't grab the Undecided Voter by the collar and shake him awake first. Use either Carter's or this one on your own undecided, depending on the degree of obliviousness he or she exhibits:

Dear Undecided Voter,
I'll bet you're sick of hearing about the upcoming election. You're sick of the TV ads where each side attacks and smears the other. You're sick of friends turning their Facebook sites into political arguments. You're sick of it all!
I'm also betting that if you voted in the last presidential election, you voted for Barack Obama. Doing so made you feel as if you had done something very significant -- cast a vote against a racist legacy in this country; and cast a vote for a feeling of hope, a feeling that things can be better. He made you feel good about yourself.
And I know you're trying hard to make the right decision this time around. You know deep down that things don't feel right. Something feels broken in this country. Everything just seems so negative.
In your own private thoughts, you have to admit to yourself that Barack Obama did not turn out to be what you had hoped. But you're worried about this Romney guy. He seems like a nice guy, but he's so rich -- how can he be in touch with the issues most people have to deal with in life? You know now that Obama isn't perfect, but at least he seems to care about the little guy.
Well, as you get ready to make your decision on November 6, I would ask you to keep just a couple of questions in mind: first, why do we elect presidents in the first place? Presidents aren't superheros who are there to solve every problem. They are men (and one day soon, women) who lead by inspiring confidence in all Americans to reach their full, God-given potential. We need our presidents to be optimistic, can-do types, who believe in the value of free enterprise and who understand that government's role in society is to encourage hard work and success, not to discourage and certainly not to demonize those who have achieved such success.
In recent times, Ronald Reagan was the model of such leadership. He inspired a nation to pull itself out of an awful economic mess and become great again. He encouraged and paved the way for one of the greatest economic booms in history -- that continued through the Clinton years -- by inspiring a belief in individual freedom and hard work and by minimizing government's intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans.
The second question is, how well has Barack Obama done as a leader? Has he inspired confidence? Has he made you feel proud to be an American? Has he helped people come together in this country and feel that we can accomplish anything if we work hard enough and put our minds to it? Does he still make you feel good about yourself?
Mitt Romney has a demonstrated track record of just such leadership. Look for yourself. Everything the man has done -- everything -- has been successful. It's not because he's lucky. And it's not because he's rich. It's because he has the right stuff to be a great leader. Oh, and by the way, he also has an incredible history of helping those who are less fortunate -- and doing so quietly, under the radar screen, because he doesn't want to attract attention to himself.
On November 6, you will be alone in that voting booth. There will be no pollsters, no spinmeisters. No one will know how you cast your vote. You are not a racist if you have serious questions right now about the direction of our country. In fact, the true test of America's being past its racist history is whether it can fire a poor leader even though he's black (wouldn't it be the worst form of racism to say, you're incompetent as a leader, but I can't fire you because you're black?).
When you go into the voting booth on November 6, remember the example of Ronald Reagan, and please, please, vote for real leadership.
Thank you.
Colin B. Lane

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