{"id":877,"date":"2012-08-10T18:27:59","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T02:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikevarley.com\/?p=877"},"modified":"2012-09-13T18:30:40","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T02:30:40","slug":"the-events-of-election-2012-baracks-letter-from-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/?p=877","title":{"rendered":"The Events of Election 2012 &#8211; Barack&#8217;s Letter from Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MOxcOCThLIk?list=PLS1ZP-LftmFFZFUCUe214X8M4wC_lhnmA&amp;hl=en_US\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>&#8220;Barack&#8217;s Letter from Afghanistan&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dear Michelle,<\/p>\n<p>Please forgive my long delay in reply. I know you&#8217;ve been needling me about it for months now and I must say, it&#8217;s a sound strategy. But now, somewhere over the Atlantic at 30,000 feet, I finally get a chance to sit still. These days, the best part of diplomacy is the travel time.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Three years since we last wrote, eh? Never has three years seemed so long in my life. In a good way, mostly; just a stress-filled way. All\u00a0this power changes time in strange ways.<\/p>\n<p>We already talked about Jerusalem; there&#8217;s not much more to say about it, really. I&#8217;ve pushed that ambition to the back of the priority list. Just give me stasis till the end of my term. Maybe my successor will have more luck once Benny&#8217;s gone.<\/p>\n<p>When do you think you lost the sense that love was the answer to all life&#8217;s problems? I&#8217;m pretty sure I was thirty or so. You need to lose it to change the world, that I&#8217;m sure of. But what if, in the process, you lose the ability to change yourself? If I have to wear one more flag pin, Michelle, I might just freak out right there at the Rose garden podium. When you&#8217;re led by love, the only thing you need to do is be yourself.<\/p>\n<p>As for the ambassador&#8217;s son, what can I say: I know what my ladies like. What I don&#8217;t like is him beating me at Words with Friends all the time. I have a doctorate in law for Harvard University, how does this kid keep beating me? I swear he&#8217;s using the internet to cheat.<\/p>\n<p>The Sasha thing I wouldn&#8217;t worry about. I found out which cameraman it was. He won&#8217;t be a problem anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it crazy that you can be more proud of a child whose only accomplishment so far is growing than any effort you&#8217;ve ever put out in your life? How many times have you looked at the kids and thought without them, you&#8217;d be a lesser person? When I see you in their faces, only to change in an instant to see my own, I see the greatest present I&#8217;ve ever given or received, from the best friend I&#8217;ve ever known. And then I see my mother&#8217;s face, and I can&#8217;t catch my breath from new insight.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the hate. I know, it&#8217;s awful. But what can I do about it that&#8217;s a stronger response than doing my job? People search for the worst in each other, cause they don&#8217;t want to see the worst in themselves. And even as I know this, my profession expects me to exploit it. It&#8217;s not a pretty picture, but it&#8217;s what the people expect and I&#8217;m here to meet expectations.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m only in Afghanistan for the weekend. I should be home in time for Malia&#8217;s game, but if not let her know I&#8217;m bringing home a present for her.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for thinking me special. You say it enough, but with your eyes you&#8217;d never need to say more than once.<\/p>\n<p>I love you,<br \/>\nBarack<\/p>\n\t\t<div style=\"float:right;margin:10px 10px 0px 0px;\">\r\n\t\t\t<a class=\"DiggThisButton DiggCompact\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmikevarley.com%2F%3Fp%3D877&title=The+Events+of+Election+2012+%26%238211%3B+Barack%26%238217%3Bs+Letter+from+Afghanistan\" ><span style=\"display:none\">&#8220;Barack&#8217;s Letter from Afghanistan&#8221; Dear Michelle, Please forgive my long delay in reply. I know you&#8217;ve been needling me about it for months now and I must say, it&#8217;s a sound strategy. But now, somewhere over the Atlantic at 30,000 feet, I finally get a chance to sit still. These days, the best part of [&hellip;]<\/span><\/a>\t\t\r\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t\r\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Barack&#8217;s Letter from Afghanistan&#8221; Dear Michelle, Please forgive my long delay in reply. I know you&#8217;ve been needling me about it for months now and I must say, it&#8217;s a sound strategy. But now, somewhere over the Atlantic at 30,000 feet, I finally get a chance to sit still. These days, the best part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n\t\t<div style=\"float:right;margin:10px 10px 0px 0px;\">\r\n\t\t\t<a class=\"DiggThisButton DiggCompact\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmikevarley.com%2F%3Fp%3D877&title=The+Events+of+Election+2012+%26%238211%3B+Barack%26%238217%3Bs+Letter+from+Afghanistan\" ><span style=\"display:none\">&#8220;Barack&#8217;s Letter from Afghanistan&#8221; Dear Michelle, Please forgive my long delay in reply. I know you&#8217;ve been needling me about it for months now and I must say, it&#8217;s a sound strategy. But now, somewhere over the Atlantic at 30,000 feet, I finally get a chance to sit still. These days, the best part of [&hellip;]<\/span><\/a>\t\t\r\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t\r\n\t\t","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}