Mr. Politician, let’s talk. First, let me say you’ve accomplished a lot just by getting where you are. You have proven to be a great leader, considering you hold office in our very complex country and have avoided the scandal that usually causes the destruction of men of your stature. You have done a brilliant job of personifying this role as a beacon of light in these difficult economic and social times. But let’s shut off the cameras, turn off the lights and send away the political strategists and be real for a minute.

In your ads you constantly remind everyone how you are planning to change Washington, minimizing the powers that the special interest groups and corporate lobbyists have over our country. But seriously, why would you want to change any of that? These lobbyists are the ones giving you thousands of dollars to do one simple task: pass laws that benefit them. Once you do that for half of the year, you have the rest of it to relax because your job is “so stressful.” So you go to one of your five houses or maybe go on a nice vacation to a foreign county.

Which brings me to another thing we should clear up since we’re being real here. In your ads you constantly remind everyone that you understand the plight of the average, middle-class American. Conversely, since we are being real, when is the last time you’ve actually cared deeply about the middle-class? All they are to you is a tool so you can get re-elected. All you have to do is run a bunch of ads painting the other candidate as an unpatriotic terrorist with the help of some war veterans, tell seniors you are going to do something about their healthcare, go to rallies held by motorcycle groups and keep your affair with your secretary under wraps until the election is over. It must be so hard to do your job.

Charles Altendorf

undergraduate studies freshman