Memo to President Barack Obama (page 3 of 3)

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Courtesy of the United States Senate

President-Elect Barack Obama

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"Be Brutally Honest"
Larry J. Sabato is director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and the author of A More Perfect Constitution.

You thought the campaign was hard, but that was the easy part. Our country is virtually bankrupt, with a national debt exceeding $10 trillion, and another $53 trillion promised in entitlements by 2050. You need to be brutally honest with citizens from the inauguration onward. Tell them what they can't have, and what they must give up, in order to save their children's and grandchildren's future. Ask for sacrifice and service.

If you steel yourself to tell Americans what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear, history will remember you as a great president. Read more advice. 

"Reunite the Country"
Kathleen Parker is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the author of Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care.

Many would say that your most compelling challenge will be ending war and saving the economy. I believe your greatest task is to reunite the country, if for no other reason than that solving those two enormous problems-and all the others you are certain to face-will be more easily accomplished by a country facing them together.

For the past 16 years, the partisan gulf in our land has widened to the extent that this nation seems not only divided but nearly crippled. You can start to bridge the divide by realizing that "consultation" with congressional leaders doesn't mean telling them what you're going to announce in the next hour. Second, remember that taking bold action—waging war, writing major changes to the tax code, launching broad new domestic policies—requires the support of both major parties, not just your own.

Leadership doesn't mean only that you display confidence; it means that you inspire confidence. Civility is important, but so is compromise. The Electoral College is winner-take-all, but judicial appointments don't have to work that way, and legislation never should.

Your greatest challenge, then, is to articulate a vision of shared purpose-something larger than ourselves and more compelling than party loyalty—to save us from self-destruction. We need to stop targeting each other and aim our considerable talents and resources at the many problems facing this world. United, we are simply much stronger and more effective. Read more advice. 

"Advocate for Adoption"
Grover G. Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Use the bully pulpit to make it a national policy that every American child without parents be adopted in your first year in office. Give a nationally televised speech and challenge every church, synagogue, and mosque in this nation to have its members choose one child to get adopted in 2009. Also, set as a priority of your foreign policy that our trading partners and allies open up their adoption processes. We have millions of couples wanting to adopt and too many orphans in the world. Read more advice.

"Commit to the Environment"
Mark Tercek is president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy.

As a nation, we must recognize that the health of the environment is inextricably linked to our well-being and prosperity. Functioning natural systems and a stable climate support livelihoods, feed our families, sate our thirst, provide clean air, enrich us spiritually, and represent a legacy for future generations.

I urge you to make sustainability—using resources no faster than they can be replenished-a guiding principle. This commitment will spark progress toward developing clean energy sources, fighting climate change, conserving our lands and waters, and rebuilding a battered economy. Your example will inspire leaders around the world to do the same. Read more advice. 

"Improve Schools"
Roy Romer, the former governor of Colorado, is the chair of Strong American Schools.

In your first hundred days in office, I would advise you to convene the governors and state education leaders to discuss what's needed to ensure that our children are prepared to compete in a global economy. I believe that any education plan needs these elements:
1. Rigorous academic standards that are the same for every student and are benchmarked against the highest-performing nations in the world.
2. Effective teachers in every classroom. Teachers are the greatest natural resource in education, yet we don't treat them as such. We need to enable them to improve their skills, measure their performance, and pay them more if they produce superior results or take on hard-to-staff jobs.
3. More time and support for learning. If we're going to demand more from our students and teachers, it's our obligation to give them the time they need to succeed. This will require redesigning the school day or school calendar. Read more advice. 

"Prepare for the Worst"
Peggy Noonan is a former White House speechwriter and adviser to President Reagan.

Chances are good that a terror event worse than 9/11 will happen on American soil on your watch. Is this something you think about every day? If not, why not? If so, what is the biggest thing we need to hold our country together during very difficult circumstances? (Hint: Enhanced civil defense? A strengthened electrical grid? A president who tries not to divide us into slivers but to encourage us to be an America whole and entire?) Read more advice. 

"Reread the Constitution"
Pauline Maier is a professor of American history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.

May I suggest that before swearing to uphold the Constitution, you take the time to reread it. It's short and won't take long, but it has had a rather bumpy ride lately and needs more careful attention. Your most illustrious predecessors knew the Constitution well and honored the limits imposed on executive power and the prerogatives granted to the legislative and judicial branches of government. Please don't skip the amendments, particularly those that protect the rights of the people, along with the provision on habeas corpus in article 1, section 9.

In fact, if you could encourage the people to read the Constitution, that would help get your administration off to a good start. How can we link arms in defense of what the United States stands for, or should stand for, unless we know very well exactly what that fundamental document of our nationhood says? Read more advice.

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