Tom Foreman, a CNN anchor and reporter, revealed that he has written a letter to President Obama every day of his first term.
That’s Every. Single. Day.
Some may find that bizarre, obsessive, even unnatural. Others may question the journalistic ethics of personally communicating with the president of the United States in such a regular and friendly fashion.
Evidently, Foreman’s employers at CNN don’t think either of those things and actually gave him space on their website to publish an article explaining himself:
I wrote about things that were important, like unemployment, Afghanistan and women’s rights. I also wrote about things that were trivial, like sports, favorite foods and my yearly battle with Christmas lights.
The tally: 1,460 letters, well over a half-million words, or enough to fill about seven novels. Laid out as one line of text, these letters would stretch almost 3½ miles or considerably longer than the inaugural parade route.
After explaining how hard it got over the years to come up with something interesting and pertinent to say, Foreman reveals the real reason he wrote the president every day: he is a raging narcissist:
In the third year, I surged ahead. Having accepted that my fountain of easy ideas had run dry, I dedicated more serious thought to what I would say. To be sure, the letters became less entertaining, but I liked to imagine that they had more substance, although in retrospect I was probably wrong.
And in this fourth year, I struggled. It seemed many days as if I’d already said everything I had to say and then some. At one point I had considered writing letters to the White House for the rest of my life. The fourth year convinced me that this would be a bad idea. I found myself counting the days to January.
Along the way it occurred to me that being president is probably much harder than most of us suppose. After all, if it is this exhausting just thinking about the job, imagine what it is like actually punching the Oval Office clock. Truthfully, I offered very little advice. More often I presented general notions about how one approaches problems; the same notions I would pass on to anyone in any position who faces daily challenges.
Which, I guess, is pretty much all of us.
His last letter is the same as his first letter:
Congratulations! Watching you on that podium today, surrounded by so many hundreds of thousands of Americans, I could not help but feel inspired by the miracle of democracy and the greatness of our nation. I also have a question: Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into?
I know you are busy today, but call when you can.
I can’t recall in 45 years of media watching ever coming across anything as corrupting to professional journalism as this. He actually expected the president — the man he is paid to cover according to the ethics and standards (a stretch with CNN, I know) of professional journalism — to call and chat him up on an informal and friendly basis. It’s hard to pick what’s more bizarre — his belief that his pitiful missives actually stimulated the thinking of the president of the United States, or that he could entertain the idea of developing a personal relationship with Barack Obama.
Why is this guy still working for CNN? The revelation that he had engaged in this fantasy for four years should have elicited sympathy from his bosses — and a paid trip to a sanitarium — or a pink slip.
What does it say about CNN that they did neither?
I noticed before, although in other countries, that the more a society moves towards a totalitarian regime the more sinister and psychotic traits of character surface in parts of the population.
This case is worth a whole chapter in a future study about what the dissidents in the USSR came to call the “homo sovieticus”.
Ah, yes – the “Homo Sovieticus”, or as he/she was called in the old USSR, the “Sovok”. The “Sovok” could mouth all the platitudes of Marx and Lenin but was described by dissidents as lazy, venal, and grasping – so of like an East Bloc George Costanza.
Dear Santa Claus…
When is the presser at the WH where Foreman stands next to the podium as Obama reads some of his letters to reporters?
This Foreman guy sounds more like a “fluffer” more than a “presser”…
How is this guy any different than every other brain-washed groupie on national TV…in other words, all of the anchors and “reporters” on nbccbsabccnnmsnbc and many on Fox, plus, apparently, 98% of actors and actresses? It’s nicely illustrative of the depth of a) the brainwashing that goes on with these cretins, b) their total lack of ability to have an independent thought and c) the creepy personalities these people have. The only difference I can see between him and the rest is that he has at last decided to admit his addiction. It puts him above the pack.
These people are beneath contempt. The only group in the world any more despicable is politicians. Members of gangs and organized crime are paragons of honesty compared to them.
I’m betting he’s trying for a book deal. You know, the “I did —– for a year” thing. If not, he’s definitely one sick puppy.
A book deal’s exactly what I thought as well, especially after the line with “enough to fill about seven novels”. He’ll separate the wheat from the chaff (assuming it’s not all chaff), and trim it down to one book.
A properly fawning title, a few cronies in the media for cover blurbs, and if he has the right (left?) connections, a short forward by a White House staff ghostwriter and “signed” with the Obama autopen will pretty much guarantee him a best seller.
Even if noone actually buys or reads it.
maybe to masturbate with
… like those California tree sitters.
I think the more interesting question is, did anyone actually *read* the letters? Did anyone respond to him? I can’t imagine that a sloth like Obama would read anything more involved than Harry Potter, let alone acknowledge the inherent adulation that Obama sees as his birthright. Which means that, at best, the letters would have been intercepted by Under Sub Most Unimportant Secretary Assistant No. 23 … and probably then trash-canned unopened.
(There for a while some years ago, people sending out bulk mail advertisements took to marking “Personal & Confidential” on the envelopes hoping to get it past secretaries to the boss’s desk. Didn’t work. One vendor was appalled when he called as follow-up and I told him I’d opened the “personal and confidential” sales pitch and tossed it instead of cluttering up the boss’s desk.)
I figure that this man’s letters helped the unemployment situation. Some intern who had to read through his drivel stayed employed.
People are always marking up envelopes to make them look “official” or important or anything but unsolicited junk.
In Washington, interns usually receive no pay and no housing allowance, but fight tooth and nail to get the “job”. Politics is so full of eager neophytes that there is a constant supply of willing laborers, who are grateful for the opportunity.
It’s one reason pay for congressional staff is generally so bad at the lowest levels – there are thousands of applicants for each opening and they generally have a skill set that is only useful in Washington.
Given the amount of power many of those youngsters have, wouldn’t you?
Oh, my point was that it didn’t help the unemployment situation because none of the people reading the letters would be employed anyway: they’d be “volunteers” called “interns”.
I wouldn’t find it any stranger than if Foreman admitted kneeled down 5 times a day on his New York Times rug, paying respect to the Sun King in DC.
Oops, under the new mental health laws, this NUT will not be allowed to own a gun!
Agreed.
The problem with Obama’s gun rulings is that I may be someone who has been thoroughly vetted, both with background checks and mental evaluations, and found competent to hold the “keys” to a nuclear power plant. Then some half-baked psychiatrist who sees me on some routine matter of little consequence takes some joke seriously and suddenly I’m on a list somewhere as one of “those people”.
May be… …but am not.
Well, Dave…I have been “vetted”, as you say, first with a Secret security clearance as a requirement of my Naval service, and then with an in-depth FBI reviewed backgound check to be considered employable at a facility that has fissile isotopes of Uranium in it.
Oh, and by the way, I do “hold the keys” to a commercial nuclear power plant, if working at one for 30 years counts.
Insanity, or being mentally unfit in the coming regime, will have very little to do with mental impairment and everything to do with the notion that, if one does not wholly agree with the policies of the State, one must be not in command of one’s mental faculties.
I think the Soviets perfected that. Lot’s of folks went into Soviet mental institutions. As a result, most Russians can still believe in multiple versions of the same reality. The official, Party version, and the one presented by their own lying eyes.
Unless the worship of Dear Leader becomes the new normal, in which case you will be the one not allowed to own a gun.
HEy go to
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/category/letters-to-the-president/
And read the entries. This is a treasure trove of information on CNN and liberalism here.
I just took a look and the tone of groupie worship is truly bizarre. That said, I was surprised that much of what Tom Forman wrote actually made sense. The overall tone to most of the short missives was gently chiding. Referring to his general arrogance and his failure to live up to his promises.
That said, if I had any money to bet with, I’d bet that this is indeed book fodder “Mash notes to a President” is undoubtedly going to rank right up there with “Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” and all those countless published collections of letters from famous authors to their BFF’s.
I truly don’t understand the problem here.
Many people pray on a daily basis. A personal connection to the Deity helps them get through life’s trials and tribulations. Mr. Foreman is no different from anyone else in making a direct connection to that which transcends all understanding.
Jamie Foxx called him his Lord and Savior, and Louis Farrakhan proclaimed him the Black Messiah
Wow! Just Wow!
That a grown man, let alone a “reporter” on a national network would not only DO this, but ADMIT to it just says it all about where the national press is.
He badly needs therapy.
And remember the film clips of the German people absolutely mesmerized by Herr Hitler. We used to laugh at them. How could they have been so stupid. Or the Stalinestias, Castroites, or the Mao crowd. And the people of the Old Testament who would not change their wicked ways. Well, welcome to Obama’s Amerika. Land of Dancing with the Starts, Pimp with a Limp, and the One’s adoration crowd. Human nature hasn’t changed much. Still adoring the dictators. Lovin’ the yoke and subjugation.
What is the difference between an Obama and a Mussolini or a Hitler? BM & AH had to earn their dictatorships as there was no affirmative action in the 20s and 30s. I’m not sure which way that cuts, really…..
Hitler actually WROTE his book. Pretty bad but he wrote it.
And Mussolini was a real intellect, contrary to the buffoon image. I learned a lot I didn’t know about him from Jonah Goldberg’s book.
Obama, by contrast, has been stroked, petted and carried his whole charmed life.
if he had as many sticking out of him as he had stuck in him, he’d look like a porcupine.
a whole lot of the same to himself, too
Foreman is obviously unstable and should not be allowed access to firearms.
zhombre
Here’s my “take” on this fool. I’ve been saying for quite some time—without going on to recommend that each of us start doing it at the local Wal Mart or theater—that the solution to what ails America is to eliminate every living, breathing Democrat. I’m aware that at my age of 75 I’ll be room temperature when this comes to pass, but come to pass it will…as it has anywhere there has ever been a Marxist or Fascist regime.
“Dear Miss Lonelyhearts…”
I would like to take this opportunity to write an open letter to the President. “Dear Mr President, get stuffed”.
does every night
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Has this country gone completely insane., Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
One narcissist writes to another. If he wasn’t a “member of the media” it would be stalking.
No kidding!
What if I started writing “a letter a day” to the white house complaining about GUN CONTROL…
Would I make it to Valentines day without a SWAT team at my door!
Laugh, smirk, oh, ye of little faith. True love knows no bounds.
And they call it puppy love… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efycf_CGmiM
Depending on ones POV its really creepy and strange.
I would ask my Lefty and often anti-Christian friends to think about this dudes actions in relation to prayer.
Each and every day he sits down and writes a long “letter” to someone he admires and feels can make a difference in peoples lives KNOWING he will, in all probability, NEVER get an answer. It is clear from the tone that he really didn’t expect him to answer that the letters had more to do with HIS needing to think about things and put his thoughts down and “send” them somewhere.
Ya, Ya, I know–the President is an actual person and so-forth.
But in practicle terms not all that different really than prayer or Chirstians whom “speak” with God frequently.
On the other point–that of a person whose JOB its is to act as a “watchdog” on Government? Utter abdication ones duty and profession.
In Gordon Korman’s delightful middle-school novel “No More Dead Dogs,” the lead girl character is a theater kid who, instead of keeping a diary, airs her concerns and works out her issues by writing long letters about her life to her role model, Julia Roberts. The distinction is that Korman’s version of such childish behavior is funny – and plausible…
Enthusiastic liberals exhibit pathological tendencies the same way enthusiastic rappers exhibit sociopathic tendencies.
Think of Chris Hayes, Chris Matthews, Michael Eric-Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Rachel Maddow on just one channel. These are not people with whom I simply disagree with, but people who have something wrong with them.
I wonder if people like this are even consciously aware that they’re carrying Obama and the Democrat’s water? When you’re deluded enough to write the man a letter every day religiously like he’s your personal deity, do you then sit down and say “I’m going to help the president by covering these stories, and covering up these other stories”, or is the brainwashing ingrained at such a deep level that you actually think you’re being a fair and honest journalist while hiding anything that could reflect poorly on your deity? Religion is one of the few things with the power to overcome self interest, and at this point the media’s worship of Obama has been into religious territory for awhile. They won’t shift their slant, even a little, to help reverse their sliding revenues. They’re literally drinking the cool-aid and sliding slowly into Oblivion. Nobody can trust them to be honest anymore. If Obama, say, raped an intern, do you think these vile toadies would cover it, or deny vigorously and call anybody who discovered the truth a racist? We know from Journolist that left wing journalists (i.e. the vast majority of them) were colluding on how to cover up the reverend wright story and smear Obama’s opponents even before the first election. You’d better believe they’re still at it now. Obama could eat a baby on live TV and the press would hail him as a hero for discovering the food source that will end the recession. He could behead somebody he doesn’t like with a scimitar in the name of allah and the media would nominate him for another nobel peace prize for his “bold outreach to muslims”. There are no words to describe how deeply these so called journalists have desecrated their profession.
In my mind, blind worshipping journalists who will go to any lengths to put men like Obama in power are the biggest long term threat to our republic, more so than the Obamas or the voters.
If you get bitten by a snake, whom do you blame the most: The snake himself? The retard who put him in your boot? Or your sworn enemy who used clever lies to trick the retard into placing the snake in your boot?
It should be clear in the analogy above that snake=Obama, Retard=voters, Sworn enemy=press.
in love
“Along the way it occurred to me that being president is probably much harder than most of us suppose.” Not in this case you dishonest, whacked out communist propaganda hack. Don’t you know that Dictator Obama has well over 100 hundred golf outings to date at taxpayer expense, numerous lavish vacations at taxpayer expense,and throws regular lavish parties at the White House, again at taxpayer expense. Lest us not forget that his court of fawning courtiers do all of the real work and in addition abdicates all of the presidential decisions to his evil female Rasputin, Valerie “the Slumlord” Jarret. We should also not fail to mention the daily intake of booze, cigarettes, and choom which he uses to tide him over those very infrequent inconvenient times when he actually has to make an appearance in public. Yep, Miss Foremen being president in this day and age is really tough for Dictator Obama. Of Course one of the really difficult aspects of the job is to put up with Moochelle’s attempts at beautifying her hulking man like frame with new wigs with bangs and dreadful fashion get ups thought up by her staff of 22 grinning flunkies.
If CNN wants realy to turn around their network’s kamikase dive into total oblivion than they need to have a wholesale house cleaning of propaganda hacks like this feckless tool otherwise it’s business as usual.
Racist, sociopath, anti-American, hate-driven, narcissist, affirmative action fraud, borderline mentally retarded—what is there about Bathhouse Barry that is NOT to love?
Pretty sad what becoming radicalized by something will do to ones rational.
In being elected the first time, he did prove one thing. It is true that in America, it is possible for ANYONE to get elected president, no matter how little he/she had accomplished before. I guess the presidency is the only job in America that requires very little in the form of past accomplishments. Imagine him trying to get a real job in this economy. The only requirement is the gift of being able to talk bullcrap.
CNN–on the Newsweek trajectory.
a creep attracts a creep
Did he write them with calligraphy? Did he also put perfume and a flower inside the envelopes?
On the plus side, if this guy finally snaps and starts trying to climb in Obama’s window at night, they’ll have a reeeeally hard time spinning him as a conservative nut . . .
. . . ah, who’m I kidding? We’d be reading about his secret stash of guns and red meat before the week was out.
This article just reinforces what many of us have known for a long time and witnessed first hand over the last 5 or so years. The media is the real problem in this country. Between this guy and Chris “tingles in the leg” Matthews their behavior is downright pathological.
If I may make an analogy; the country has AIDS, the mainstream media is the HIV causing that AIDS, and Obama is just the common cold taking advantage of the situation to become a fatal illness. Eliminate the Democrat’s propaganda machine and the nation’s immune system would naturally fight them off.
I can imagine Obama and his inner circle reading those letters at a staff meeting and laughing themselves to tears.
Mr. President, I realized something today. You are the captain of my Starship Enterprise.
OMG, wouldn’t it be leftastic if you could stay President for-EVAR???? You should do that. Executive order!
Do you like Glee, Mr. President? Cause I’m watching Glee right now. I wonder if you’re watching this episode too on some television in the White House. Cause if you were, it’d be like we where watching it together! *MAN-SQUEEL*
What a waste of POSTAGE! Not to mention paper,ink,envelopes,time and energy. Did His Mightiness the Magic Obama ever write back? Likely no. Anyway,to keep writing letters when one has run out of new things to say makes no sense.
Yup. If we assume a cost of $0.50 per letter once postage, envelope, and paper are included 0.50*365*4= $730. That’s an expensive hobby.
BARACK OBAMA AND THE FIRST MESSIANIC COMING THAT WASN’T
How could there be a second coming of the Socialist Christ, as Newsweek proclaims, when there wasn’t a true first coming to begin with? When Obama performed no earthshaking domestic or foreign policy miracles his first four years? When he broke a hundred promises after taking his oath on the Lincoln Bible? When he believes that he underspent by trillions what was needed to revive the economy, and was too soft on Israel to forge peace between America and Islam? What first coming was there when Obama’s first term was so bad that he had to cover himself in mud and manure to beat Mitt Romney, and coverup Benghazi? What real glory is there in thinking you’re the 4th greatest president ever when you’re the first of 16 presidents to win reelection with less popular and electoral support the second time around? What honor is there in vowing to protect the nation’s children whose future you’re destroying with bankrupting spending and debt? What the imbeciles at Newsweek are hopelessly hoping for in Obama’s second term is the first messianic coming after being postponed, and Socialism’s salvation from universal collapse. What they’ll get is their messiah in political hell turning the disaster of his first term into the catastrophe of his second, as America continues its dangerous decline into mediocrity, insolvency and ruin.
Tim Carney: Beneficiaries of Obama’s policies bankroll inauguration January 20, 2013
http://washingtonexaminer.com/tim-carney-beneficiaries-of-obamas-policies-bankroll-inauguration/article/2519101
I can’t believe a grown man is so childish.
I can’t believe a journalist is so unaware of standards that he brags about it. Pathetic.
[Channeling Foreman]
[/Channeling Foreman]
I expect the sad puppy-dog to boil a rabbit or Bo sometime soon.
I read a few of the letters written by Tom. I think they are very clever. He has written in a way that challenges Obama quite politely but very deeeply. He probably never received any answers that were pertinent so is quitting.
i.e: “Dear Satan, I’m so impressed with all you’ve done, that I just can’t help but admire and gush endlessly about your Giant Ego and how it got you there. As you can see, I, too, have a Giant Ego, so I was wondering if, after mine snows yours with some more vapidly inane trivia, you might not be so impressed with it that you’d feel the necessity of having me around you 24/7/365? (I know I do!) So, can I have a job like yours – in fact, if we commisserate enough, and you see how essential it is to be me, because of course, as we’re both raging narcissists, you and I will always be on the exact same page anyway, can I have YOUR job? Anyway, thanks for listening; talk atcha again tomorrow! Wuv You!”
(PUKE)…
I envision Obama casually with a smirk inquiring of his intern: “what pearls of wisdom has Tom for us today?”
First we have “Tingles” (Chris Matthews) over at MSNBC getting the shivers, now we have this imbecile at CNN…
If you ever needed some proof that the mainstream media is untrustworthy and anything but honest and neutral in their reporting, look no further.
This goes beyond bazaar and wacky, and veers far into the realm of idolatry…reeking of the creepy propagandism of the Third Reich. He needs professional help.
“Dear Leader”, indeed.
I don’t blame Obama for this tinfoil hat any more than I blame a starlet for being stalked by a love stricken cretin.
Best,
R.
There’s NO WAY you can call the MSM propaganda. They’re the new American KGB! Step out of line and you’ll be punished!
So it sounds like what this man really wants is God he can talk to about his concerns and have a personal relationship with while simultaneously worshiping and holding in adoration. Sounds like he wants a god.
“My yearly battle with Christmas lights?”
“MY YEARLY BATTLE WITH CHRISTMAS LIGHTS?”
And here I thought that Willard fellow soiling his pants during a White House visit was a journalistic low.
Give the reporter a break. He had no choice. Obama simply made him love him. Judy Garland sings it best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFSczLif0q4