Humble for President

President Barack Obama Obama for America P.O. Box 803638 Chicago, IL Governor Mitt Romney Romney For President 80 Hayden Ave. Lexington, MA 02421

To Our Next President, Theres a little-known story about a letter John Adams wrote that I think bears our reflection as you begin the final stage of the general election campaign to lead the nation over these next four years. Adams, who preceded you both as the first president to occupy the White House, had just made the trip to Washington in November of 1801 from his executive mansion in Philadelphia. On his first day in office, he penned a letter to his wife, Abigail, who had not yet reached the city. I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on this house, and on All that shall hereafter Inhabit it, he wrote. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof! Those lines, now carved on the mantel in the state dining room, made a good prayer then, as historian David McCullough once wrote, and they make a good prayer now. And its the sentiment of that prayer that leads me to write this letter. First, thank you for serving. We know that your job ahead of you is extremely difficult. We apologize for demanding too much and not enough of youoften at the same time. For years, weve hung every dip and dive of the stock market and the unemployment rate around your neck. Its true, your leadership on the economy matters. The policies you pursue, the advisers you appoint, the confidence you instill among business owners and shareholders on Wall Street and Main Streetthese all have the ability to affect our economy. But if were intellectually honest with ourselves, if we take a step back from knee-jerk and partisan reactions, we understand that our economy is vastly more complex than that, that in our flat and interconnected world, it transcends the actions of one man or womaneven those of you, the leader of the free world. Still, we havent let the facts get in the way of a good criticism. Whether a Republican or a Democrat has filled the office you seek, weve done our vociferous best to demonize them. Were sorry. For years, weve been encouraged by the person who occupies or is seeking your office to ask ourselves the question: Are we better off than we were four years ago? Though

the question is a clever bit of campaign rhetoric, it fails to acknowledge our own roles in our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. But given that we pawn our failures on you, we cant blame you for wanting more control over our lives. Were sorry. For years, weve demanded that you lead us well, that you turn around the economy, maintain and increase our power abroad, and improve the nation. And then we fault you for increasing your executive power and violating the Constitution. Were sorry. For years, weve worried about and lamented the nations budget deficit, but when we catch the faintest whiff of you or your party trying to cut one of our pet programs, we cry foul. Were sorry. For years, weve parsed every predicate of every sentenced youve utteredand for good reason: Your words carry great weight. But when youve been of an opposing party, weve all too often delighted at taking your words out of context and laughing at you when you misspeak or when your policies fail. So its unfair of us to bristle, then, when we hear you speak in timid, canned, and crafted sound bites. Were sorry. For years, weve complained when you go golfing or vacation on Marthas Vineyard while some of us dont vacation at all. Weve envied your life, without giving away a major portion of our lives to public service like you have. And then we complain that you live in a bubble and fail to experience the hardships of everyday Americans. Were sorry. For years, half of us have resolved to oppose you before you even give your inaugural address and to oppose the other half of the nation who supports you. Then, we lament your inability to lead well. We claim that youre a divider. We marvel at what we see as your spectacular failures in office, and we scoff at the promises you made us before you even entered office. Were sorry. For years, weve asked you for true leadership by owning up to your mistakes in public lifewithout owning up to ours. But were not sorry for asking you to lead. We need a president who can lead. We need a president who can lead the red states and the blue states, the coastal states and the flyover states. We need a president who can lead the United States. We need you to be for usnot simply yourself at the ballot box. Were not sorry for expecting you to be a person of solid character. As they were crafting the position of the presidency, the first Americans had that kind of solid leader in mind. Pierce Butler, South Carolinas delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, said, Many members cast their eyes toward General Washington and shaped their ideas of the powers to be given to a president by their opinions of his virtue. We need you be a person of that kind of character. Were not sorry for asking you to accept and take responsibility for your mistakes. Bold leadership, the type we need right now, will inevitably result in mistakes. Make them, accept them, and move on. In fact, if you take responsibility for your mistakes, it could

inspire other leaders to do the same, changing the entire culture of leadership across the nation. And were not sorry for asking more of you today than perhaps weve ever asked of a president before in our lifetime: to help lead us as a nation into a new era of personal and political humility. We need you to be more ambitious about the success of the nation and less ambitious about building your political legacy. Concentrate on the former, and the latter will be built as you do, matchingor perhaps eclipsingthe legacy of those who have gone before you. As you pursue office, we want to remind you of a few simple realities written into the American story (and the human story, for that matter), however deeply buried they are in the pride of our politics in recent years: Great power requires great humility. And power detached from humility eventually fails. We want you, as the leader of our nation, to succeed, because we want our country to succeed. So as you endeavor to lead with humility, know that youll have our support. A small but growing number of us are working toward that same ethic, and well stand with you as you do the same. When you admit your mistakes, well take you at your word and know that youre learning from them because youre not in self-preservation mode. In recent years weve noticed that some politicians, wise to our dislike of prideful leaders, have adopted the practice of dropping the word proud from their speeches. Rather than saying something like, Im proud to have the congressmans endorsement, for example, they say, Im pleased to have the congressmans endorsement. Its a small step in the right direction, but its only a step. In addition to rhetoric, our politicians actionsand yours chief among themmust change as well. We want to remind you that humility can transcend the brashness of our current political battles. Some of our nations greatest, most restorative moments following tumultuous times began with humble gesturesWashington extinguishing the prospect of rule by military dictatorship, Lincolns rising above the fray by including political rivals in his cabinet, Fords pardoning of Nixon. Sure, well have our differences along the way. But when we disagree, well do so humbly, knowing that our party, our political tribe, doesnt have all the right answers on every issue. In the field of fluid dynamics, Bernoullis principle tells us how aircraft can fly that lift opposes gravity, and thrust opposes drag. In the same way the force of lift opposes gravity, the force of humility opposes the force of pride. It is the trait lifting those among us who become low in service to others to great heights, the trait that can propel us to true greatness. And so as you lead us these next four years, may you, as John Adams first prayed more than 200 years ago, lead us with wisdom and honestyand humility.

Do you pledge to campaign and govern with humility over these next months leading up to the election, and, if elected, for the duration of your service to our country? We look forward to your response.

Humbly, Jeremie Kubicek CEO of GiANT Impact and founder of Humble for President And those citizens who have signed the campaign for Humble for President.