The following is a brief bio of Mr. Pritchett, VP of World Sales for Proctor and Gamble, and his open letter to President Obama. It was forwarded to me and I’m posting it for others to see.
Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America ’s true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world’s highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as “partnering.” Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Dear President Obama:
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core..
You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America ‘ crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O’Reilys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.
Lou Pritchett
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For years I have heard people tell me how Canadian and European socialized health care was so much better than our system.
Recently I decided to send some of these folks a mountain of links to everything from documentaries to newspaper stories, irrefutably demonstrating that both Canada and Europe’s health care system suffers from long waiting lists, denial of service and a host of other problems.
What was the response? What did my progressive friends say when they received the mountain of evidence I had sent them? They moved the goal post. Yes, they told me that Canada was old news, and that I should find other examples.
This propensity of the left to shift the conversation rather than address the results of a study, to parse the discussion or misdirect, is a templete they’ve used for many years.
I felt compelled to write about this because, while I am not surprised at these intellectually dishonest tactics, it still hurts when it happens.
Time and again I am confronted by a statement, made proud and forceful, and when I take the time to prove that the statement is simply not true, I am told that that wasn’t the most important point, or that the study I used is wrong.
Lately the trend has been to talk about small, homogeneous nations where socialized health care works great. The problem here, of course, is that they are not comparing apples to apples.
Sweden’s health care system, for example, exists in a social, political and cultural bubble that is not challenged by the numerous problems we face here in the U.S.To say that the morphology of their health care system could possibly translate here is once again intellectually dishonest.
Facts are stubborn things.
The protest was greeted with overcast skies and intermittent rain, but that didn’t stop over 200 participants from showing up and demonstrating their frustration over the Obama administration’s parade of policies and programs which they feel are eroding their civil liberties and increasing their taxes. 
The crowd was a mix of all ages, from young children to senior citizens. Some carried signs of protest while others dressed in red, white and blue. One couple came as George and Martha Washington.
The protest organizer, Joanne Wilder, is the CNY Coordinator for the national Tax Tea Party organization. Wilder said that Saturday’s protest was just one of many events she has planned throughout the summer. “We want some kind of visible event every week throughout the summer,” Wilder said.
While the protesters are clearly upset over such issues as Cap and Trade, government-run health care, the stimulus bill and ongoing bailouts of troubled companies, their emotions on this day were positive and upbeat.
People listened and applauded speakers, children waved miniature flags, and the sense of common purpose was everywhere.
Here is the final draft of the speech to be delivered on July 4, in Syracuse, NY.
Just Say No
During a recent press conference, Obama said that if I liked my doctor I could keep him. As Glen Beck would say, ”Blood shot out of my eyes!”
Can you imagine the arrogance and swagger needed to make such a statement? The President is “allowing” me to keep my doctor. How gracious. How magnanimous. 
Of course, Obama was talking about a public health care option. That was the context. Obama said he wasn’t interested in socialized, government-run health care. He said he simply wants to provide a public option designed to compete with the private sector.
Folks, this is simply not true. And I can prove it. In 2003 in a speech before the AFL-CIO in Chicago, Obama clearly stated he was in favor of single-payer, government-run health care. The audio of that speech is available to anyone interested in listening.
More importantly, he went on to say in that speech that Americans would never willingly accept socialized health care, and therefore it was important to create an intermediary step, namely, a public option, which would ultimately lead to a full-blown, government-run system.
Obama said this Trojan horse public option would compete with the private sector. In his words it would keep the private sector “honest”.
Which makes me wonder, “who’s going to keep the government honest?!”
And could someone please explain how the government can compete with the private sector while also making the rules everyone else has to follow? How is that a level playing field?
If Obama gets his way, here’s what will happen: many companies will decide to stop offering health care to their employees, electing instead to pay a fine rather than deal with maintaining the benefit. This will cause a mass exodus that will swell the membership of the public option. The government will then use that as an excuse to broaden their control over the system. They’ll tell us that due to the popularity of the public option, they have decided to move forward and take full control.
If Obama gets his way, we get socialized medicine. Is that what YOU want?
If Obama gets his way, we get waiting lines, rationing and denial of service. Is that what YOU want?
If Obama gets his way, we will have bureaucrats deciding what treatments and procedures are necessary. Is that what YOU want?
And as with most every government-run program, it will be inefficient, unaffordable and unsustainable. And it will be a one-size-fits-all model. And when it’s one-size-fits-all ….it fits no one.
Canada and many European nations have had socialized health care for many years, and there are two chief complaints repeated constantly.
First, there are waiting lines. These lines are often a matter of life and death for people living in Canada and England. Many come to the US for treatment rather than die waiting at home.
The second concern is cost containment, which results in everything from denial of treatment to rationing.
In fact, an article in a British newspaper, dated 2007, talks about one hospital in which housekeeping was told to re-use dirty hospital sheets instead of using fresh ones between patients to save costs. The same article tells of another hospital in England were the staff was amazed to receive a memo encouraging them to save a couple dollars a day by prescribing cheaper medications, reducing the number of sterile packs used, cutting hospital tests and, get this, my personal favorite, asking patients to bring their own drugs from home!
There is yet another reason why government-run health care is a bad idea: it stifles innovation.
The vast majority of medical breakthroughs and innovations have occurred here in the United States, and our friends in Canada and the European nations have profited by these advances free of charge. The private sector celebrates and rewards innovation. Government suffocates it!
If we allow the government to run health care, and the Pay Czar to determine how much people in the private sector can earn, fewer people will become doctors, and those that are left will be less inclined to innovate.
Remember, when the government tries to be all things to all people, it becomes unsustainable. One need only look at California to see what happens when government spends more than it receives in revenue. California, the 8th largest economy in the world, has declared an economic state of emergency and has begun issuing I.O.U’s to welfare recipients and contractors. And compared to the Obama administration, the California state government are fiscal conservatives!
Here’s a little good news.
We are beginning to gain ground. With this third wave of tea party protests, more and more voters are taking a second look at this issue. Because of you, and people just like you all around the country, support for these policies and ideas are losing popularity. You are reframing the issue and revealing it for what it truly is, a discussion of liberty, choice and limited government.
The Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows Obama’s popularity beginning to dip. We need to continue to hit hard and lean into our punches.
We need to step up the pressure. We are fighting against professional protesters. You folks are much more at home working hard every day than organizing grass roots social movements. So you’re going to have to get up to speed quick. Step it up and Just Say No to socialized health care!
Talk to your neighbors, get online and exploit the social networking tools available to you. Support bloggers by leaving comments, subscribing to their RSS feeds, participating in forums, making personal connections with others, signing petitions…don’t let up.
2010 is coming fast. With your help we will put some true conservatives back into Congress, and begin to shift the balance of power away from these progressive central planners, and set the stage for a landslide republican presidential victory in 2012.
It starts here.
It starts now.
Refuse to lose.
Thank you very much.
I’ll be giving a speech on July 4th at the Syracuse, NY Tea Party in downtown Syracuse. For those not able to attend, here is the current draft of the speech.
Just Say No
During a recent press conference, Obama said that if I liked my doctor I could keep him. As Glenn Beck would say, ”Blood shot out of my eyes!”
Can you imagine the arrogance and swagger needed to make such a statement? The President is “allowing” me to keep my doctor. How gracious. How magnanimous.
Of course, Obama was talking about a public health care option. That was the context. Obama said he wasn’t interested in socialized, government-run health care. He said he simply wants to provide a public option designed to compete with the private sector.
Folks, this is simply not true. And I can prove it. In 2003 in a speech before the AFL-CIO in Chicago, Obama clearly stated he was in favor of single-payer, government-run health care. The audio of that speech is available to anyone interested in listening. 
More importantly, he went on to say in that speech that Americans would never willingly accept socialized health care, and therefore it was important to create an intermediary step, namely, a public option, which would ultimately lead to a full-blown, government-run system.
Obama said this Trojan horse public option would compete with the private sector. In his words it would keep the private sector “honest”.
Which makes me wonder, “who’s going to keep the government honest?!”
And could someone please explain how the government can compete with the private sector while also making the rules everyone else has to follow? How is that a level playing field?
If Obama gets his way, here’s what will happen: many companies will decide to stop offering health care to their employees, electing instead to pay a fine rather than deal with maintaining the benefit. This will cause a mass exodus that will swell the membership of the public option. The government will then use that as an excuse to broaden their control over the system. They’ll tell us that due to the popularity of the public option, they have decided to move forward and take full control.
If Obama gets his way, we get socialized medicine. Is that what YOU want?
If Obama gets his way, we get waiting lines, rationing and denial of service. Is that what YOU want?
If Obama gets his way, we will have bureaucrats deciding what treatments and procedures are necessary. Is that what YOU want?
And as with most every government-run program, it will be inefficient, unaffordable and unsustainable. And it will be a one-size-fits-all model. And when it’s one-size-fits-all ….it fits no one.
Canada and many European nations have had socialized health care for many years, and there are two chief complaints repeated constantly.
First, there are waiting lines. These lines are often a matter of life and death for people living in Canada and England. Many come to the US for treatment rather than die waiting at home.
The second concern is cost containment, which results in everything from denial of treatment to rationing.
In fact, an article in a British newspaper, dated 2007, talks about one hospital in which housekeeping was told to re-use dirty hospital sheets instead of using fresh ones between patients to save costs. The same article tells of another hospital in England were the staff was amazed to receive a memo encouraging them to save a couple dollars a day by prescribing cheaper medications, reducing the number of sterile packs used, cutting hospital tests and, get this, my personal favorite, asking patients to bring their own drugs from home!
There is yet another reason why government-run health care is a bad idea: it stifles innovation.
The vast majority of medical breakthroughs and innovations have occurred here in the United States, and our friends in Canada and the European nations have profited by these advances free of charge. The private sector celebrates and rewards innovation. Government suffocates it!
If we allow the government to run health care, and the Pay Czar to determine how much people in the private sector can earn, fewer people will become doctors, and those that are left will be less inclined to innovate.
Remember, when the government tries to be all things to all people, it becomes unsustainable. As I write these words California, one of the largest economies in the world, has declared an economic state of emergency and has begun issuing I.O.U’s to welfare recipients and contractors.
Here’s a little good news.
We are beginning to gain ground. With this third wave of tea party protests, more and more voters are taking a second look at this issue. Because of you, and people just like you all around the country, support for these policies and ideas are losing popularity. You are reframing the issue and revealing it for what it truly is, a discussion of liberty, choice limited government.
The Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows Obama’s popularity beginning to dip. We need to continue to hit hard and lean into our punches.
We need to step up the pressure. We are fighting against professional protesters. You folks are much more at home working hard every day than organizing grass roots social movements. So you’re going to have to get up to speed quick. Step it up and Just Say No to socialized health care!
Talk to your neighbors, get online and exploit the social networking tools available to you. Support bloggers by leaving comments, subscribing to their RSS feeds, participating in forums, making personal connections with others, signing petitions…don’t let up.
2010 is coming fast. With your help we will put some true conservatives back into Congress, and begin to shift the balance of power away from these progressive central planners, and set the stage for a landslide republican presidential victory in 2012.
It starts here.
It starts now.
Refuse to lose.
Thank you very much.