An open letter to Barack Obama

Dear Sen. Obama,

We know your speech tonight has probably been written for weeks and you're down to the minor tweaking.

We know you've become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president based on your pledge to make America all it can be and, of course, your stirring oratory. You have that cult of personality that's increasingly rare in American politics these days. People flock to you like moths to a flame.

We know that tonight you'll give many of us shivers with your vision for a brighter tomorrow.

But what exactly will you tell your constituency and the independent voters tonight? How will you get America to that happy place in the future?

People are scared. Many are out of work or underemployed. Home values - for those who have them - are dropping. People can't fill their tanks. The news seems to get worse every day.

Tonight, like no other time during your candidacy, you have America's collective ear. Those who haven't taken the time to learn the specifics of your platform need to hear it. And they need an honest assessment of how you plan to get the country there.

Here's what you'll need to tell prospective voters tonight:

• How we'll get our soldiers out of Iraq without leaving that country in much worse shape than when we landed there. We owe them that much.

• How you'll protect us from terrorists.

• How you'll stem the tide of jobs fleeing our borders for cheap labor oversees and that you'll do something about international interests buying up more and more of this country. Americans aren't willing to become someone else's franchise.

• How you plan to cajole automakers into being more sensitive to our pocketbooks as well as the environment by pursuing cheaper, cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels.

• How you'll seek to fix the mortgage crisis in our country and prevent this sort of predatory lending from ever happening again.

• That when you sit down with world leaders of all stripes you'll take full advantage of Sen. Biden's foreign policy experience and that he not be relegated to minor duties as was largely the custom before the current administration.

• How you'll end partisanship on Capitol Hill.

• How you can achieve your objectives with a divided country.

• What can be done and what you think can't.

• What this all will cost Americans both in terms of money and time, what would have to be sacrificed and what we Americans can all do to help.

Tell us.