You are irrelevant in this presidential race. I hope you understand that your decision to pick a woman as your running mate (albeit the wrong one) is the biggest newsworthy event in your entire campaign. I hope you enjoy your short-lived time in the limelight.

I still believe this, but in order to sustain my credibility of argument, I would like to further elaborate on the thought process that led me to my earlier note.

I watched your speech last night.  As a student of political science, I know all too well the rhetoric and partisan politics that shape an election year. However, I would like to point out several glaring mistakes that you made last night, mistakes that will reveal your true snide character to anyone with half a cosmopolitan brain. About a third of the way into your speech you stated, "Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us… I wouldn't be an American worthy of the name if I didn't honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement."  

During these words, a young woman holding making a peace sign with two fingers was escorted from the building. The cowboy-hat adorned crowd booed and hissed at this young woman, creating an unsafe space for her silent protest. Rather than remind your fellow Republicans of your message of unity, you stated this: "Please don't be diverted by the ground noise and static." This contradictory statement, full of hate and cynicism, shows me that you care nothing of a fellow citizen unless you are sure of a vote. I do not want this in my president.

As a current Health Policy graduate student, I am particularly frustrated by your lack of health policy.  Granted, I know the difficulty of understanding the health care system; as a second-year, I'm still learning.  I do know, however, that the system is broken, and more of the same will not repair it.  It is fully understood that a market-driven economy will balance itself, but that an economy governed solely by market forces will swallow honest, hardworking people.  The same is even truer with a health care system; your plan of more of the same, with an increase in market-driven policies will merely allow prices and costs to skyrocket. I will not have health insurance after I graduate, and I will more than likely not be able to afford it under your plan. But, seeing as how vague your policy is, I doubt you've pondered your plan very much.

Your suggestion that we stop "sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much" stopped short.  You trailed off, then continued with, "We'll attack…"  I'm not sure where you were planning on going with this, but I agree with you.  Maybe we should stop sending $98 billion a year to Iraq as well. From what I hear, they don't like us that much.

I am disappointed in your contradictions, Mr. McCain. You style yourself as a maverick, but really you remind me of a confused 20-year-old college student who cannot decide on a major and finds himself grasping any possible thread to find his way to graduation.  Your choice of a running mate strictly opposed to issues that you once supported, such as the right to an abortion, confuse me as to your true intent. It seems that a true maverick wouldn't cater in such a way to the evangelical right. I consider your choice the decision of a desperate man.  

As a citizen of the United States whose responsibility it is to consent to be governed, I will campaign against you fiercely, yet respectfully. You will never have my consent, and come January 2009 the United States will head in a new direction under the presidency of Barack Obama. 

Sincerely,

Michelle Putnam