Michelle Obama: Barack Obama Reads 10 Letters a Day, Forwards Them to Staffers With “This is Who We’re Fighting For” Note

The State of the
Union starts in a few hours, and the push to drum up an
audience continues. In an e-mail from the White House sent earlier
today, First Lady Michelle Obama explains that tonight’s speech
will be based not on piles of papers or meetings, but on the things
her husband reads late at night. Have you been writing him?

The e-mail:

Tonight, Barack will deliver his fifth State of the
Union address.

You might think that this speech was born out of a pile of papers
or a long series of meetings. But actually, the real motivations —
and the real substance — behind tonight’s speech come from those
quiet moments late at night, when Barack is at his desk reading
your letters.

He reads at least 10 a day, from folks all across the country. You
write him to say thank you, or to weigh in on a policy issue. You
tell him about your families, and what’s going on in your lives.
And he listens.

These letters turn into real action. I’ve seen it happen: He’ll
write in the margins “This is who we’re fighting for,” and then
he’ll pass them on to his senior staff.

Take a look at this video — you’ll see what I mean. Then make sure
to let him know you’ll be watching tonight.

Barack is always up late before big speeches
like this one.

And all day today, I know that he’ll be making changes to the
speech right up until the last hour.

It’s not only because he wants to get that final draft just right.
It’s because he cares deeply about your stories and your hopes and
dreams. That’s what keeps him going every single day.

We hope you’ll be watching:

http://ift.tt/A84PEU

Thanks,

First Lady Michelle Obama

I wonder if the same people who pre-select the “average
citizens” who get to ask the president questions at “town halls”
pre-select which letters he spends his nights reading? It seems if
he were actually reading a random sampling of the mail he gets, he
might have a little more understanding of why so many Americans are
so
disenchanted with his policies. Most Americans, anyway, are
probably as uninterested in writing a letter to the president as
they are in
listening to him talk.