My e-mail in-box is always good for surprises. A few weeks ago, Saif Gaddafi made me an interesting offer. Now Barack Obama has invited me to dinner.
What should I talk to him about? What would you ask him if you had the chance?
I’m not concerned about policy, because he is the person who was elected. He should know what to do. Instead, I’d like to talk to him about things like leadership, communication and strategy.
I’d certainly be tempted to give him some advice about PR and about dealing with his political adversaries, who continue to spread lies about him. The myth of Obama not having an American birth certificate has died, but other myths — for example, that Obama “has gone around the world apologizing for America” — are still being repeated rather loudly. I’d tell him to get in front of a microphone and say, “Guess what, folks! The apology tour never happened.”
Not gloating over the elimination of Osama bin Laden was the best decision from a moral standpoint, but not from a political standpoint. The president could slip a reminder of this accomplishment into a few hundred speeches in the coming months. “Obama got bin Laden” would even work as a campaign slogan.
So we do have a few things to talk about.
The fine print
I kept reading, and then noticed that something was wrong. I wasn’t the only person to receive this e-mail. To have even a chance of having dinner with Obama, I would have to enter a sweepstakes. The president even asked me to donate $5 as an entry fee.
Fund-raising dinners for presidents are a long tradition. Dinner with Bill Clinton or either Bush would have cost at least $10,000, without any guarantee of face time. So lowering the ticket price is an interesting idea, even though it seems a little desperate. The country is getting to be more and more like Americathon.
The 2008 campaign, with primary elections for both major parties, cost all the candidates combined about $1 billion. For 2012, that sum will still be astronomical, but a bit less because Obama won’t have a Democratic challenger. It could be April or May 2012 before Republican voters have chosen a single candidate in the primaries, and the general election isn’t until November. So there’s plenty of time to raise some cash.
I don’t believe in giving money to political candidates, and it looks like I won’t have to. The fine print in the sweepstakes invitation says, for legal reasons, that I may ignore the request for money and still participate. So Barack, keep that seat at your table open. We have a few things to discuss. And to the other candidates: invite me to dinner and I’ll share some advice with you, too.
