Let Me

Be
Clear
Barack Obama's War on Millenials,
and One Woman’s Case for Hope
—————————————————————

K atie Kieffer

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 Copyright © 2014 by Katie Kieffer LLC.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Crown Forum,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House LLC,
a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

CROWN FORUM with colophon is a registered trademark

of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data

To come

ISBN 978-­0 -­8041-­3975-­5

eBook ISBN 978-­0 -­8041-­3976-­2

Printed in the United States of America

Jacket design by
Jacket photography

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

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 Contents

Dear Barack Obama ix

1 Operation Pickup Line 1

2 Fired Before They Even Interviewed 32

3 Young and Hellthy 63

4 Flipping Students the Bird 93

5 The New “Shacking Up” 119

6 Why Fathers Matter 149

7 Steamrolling the Foxholes 179

8 Where There’s a Nonsmoker 216

9 Our Gun Tattoos 244

10 Roarin’ Muscle Cars 273

Notes 299

Acknowledgments 336

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 Dear Barack Obama,
Let me begin by borrowing one of your favorite
phrases. Let me be clear: I am a young American and
I am writing on behalf of my generation. We are the
Millennial Generation and we are 95 million strong.
I am writing to request recompense for victimizing
us for your political gain. You promised us jobs, hope,
and change. In the end, you followed through only on
the “change.”
You duped Millennials into voting for you not once
but twice and implemented unconstitutional decrees
that robbed us of the opportunities that we deserve.
We are the first generation of Americans to be
financially worse off than our parents. Your puerile
policies and pomposity have rendered it nearly impos-
sible for us to achieve the American Dream.
You chatted it up with our favorite hosts like
Fallon, Leno, and Stewart; you seemed like a
nice, regular guy and Millennials trusted you. You
saturated social media with false hope. You endorsed

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 x de a r ba r ack oba m a

voyeuristic YouTube videos by Hollywood celebrities

targeted at college students for your presidential
campaign.
With the aid of your teleprompter, you traveled
the college-­campus circuit, promising us that you
would help us find jobs when we graduated and
that you would make college more affordable; you
encouraged us all to go to college and twisted our
arms to take out massive loans. Meanwhile, your
administration was profiting off our backs.
Law school students acquired colossal debt and
passed the bar exam only to end up working as
coffee baristas; Ivy league graduates applied for
third-­rate jobs just to get by; and youth abandoned
their dreams as nurses, doctors, and surgeons to
take mind-­numbing but higher-­paying office jobs
within the government.
You told us that you were reforming health care
and making it more affordable, but you did not tell
young medical students how hard it would be for
them to care for their patients or make a profit as

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 d e a r b a r a c k o b a m a xi

physicians under Obamacare. We thought you were

being “transparent” when you told us we could keep
our doctor and our health-care plan if we liked it; we
didn’t realize you had your fingers crossed behind
your back.
You promised to create 7 million new jobs and to
help entrepreneurs of my generation become “the next
Steve Jobs.” Then you hardly worked on the economy
at all; you spent nearly twice as much time on the
golf course as you did in economic meetings.1

Meanwhile, my generation of highly educated

Americans was underemployed and drowning in the
student debt that you advised us to take out.
Our credit was terrible; we couldn’t buy homes
and we often had nowhere to turn but our parents’
basements. We put off marriage, and many of us will
delay parenthood for so long that we may never see
our own grandchildren.
You sent young men and women into hopeless
battles where they had their limbs blown off by
savage brutes and earned an epidemic of P TSD.

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 xii de a r ba r ack oba m a

When these brave troops returned home, you withheld

their benefits and imprisoned them unjustly—­
sending them spiraling into suicidal depression.
You rendered my entire generation defenseless
and vulnerable to terror and violence; you attacked
our Second Amendment rights; you threatened to
hunt us down with lethal drone force; you allowed
young Americans to die in easily preventable terror
attacks.
Your administration lied to my friends about guns
in order to buy their votes. You did not just mislead;
you are culpable for setting us against each other
and creating an aura of distrust that clouds our
relationships; you are accountable for promoting gun
regulations that left us susceptible to mass violence
in our schools and workplaces.
You were the Executive C on Man of one gigantic
pyramid scheme where young people hustled to knock
on doors and “get out the vote” in both 2008 and
2012 only to be forgotten by you. Once elected, you
prioritized getting down in a dance-­off with Usher;

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 d e a r b a r a c k o b a m a xiii

jetting off to play eighteen holes with Tiger; and

eavesdropping on journalists with Holder.
You shirked responsibility for the misery you
imposed on my generation. Your economic, social , and
national security policies have left both literal and
metaphorical bloodstains on your hands for killing the
hopes, careers, and dreams of young Americans for
your own political gain.
Your administration’s lies and incompetence anger
me on my own behalf and on behalf of my friends.
You have done such extensive damage to my gener-
ation that I decided to share and expose our story.
You are now accountable to us. I expect you to read
this book; I believe you will find it quite eye-­opening.
Sincerely,
Katie Kieffer

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 Oper ation ­
PickUp Line 1

B ill Clinton beguiled any attractive young woman who struck his
fancy as he made his way through two terms in the White House.
Barack Obama outdid Clinton during his own dual presidency, be-
guiling young men and women alike without leaving even one stained
navy blue dress to mark his trail. Obama worked remotely—­using slick
and dirty pickup lines to attract youths to his brand and then turn-
ing around and crushing the careers, hopes, and dreams of millions of
young Americans.
Obama’s greatest presidential legacy is also his biggest scandal:
Obama literally robbed the cradle. He seduced the Millennial genera-
tion into voting for him not once but twice. He captured 60 percent of
the eighteen-­to-­twenty-­nine vote in 2012 and an even larger share of
the youth vote (66 percent) in 2008.1 Unlike a young person who could
at least find maturity and support in an older partner, Millennials who
voted for Obama were left with a shell of a man who had less maturity
than they; a man who promised to help them land jobs and pay for
college only to leave them jobless while he teed off with his bad boy
playmates.

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 2 / l e t m e b e c l e a r

Because He Could

W hy did Obama con 95 million young people? For the same reason
President John F. Kennedy preyed on an attractive young intern.
And for the same reason Clinton said he became an expert in extramari-
tal affairs and dress staining: “Just because I could.”2
Because he could, one summer afternoon in 1962, President John
F. Kennedy treated nineteen-­year-­old White House press office intern
Mimi Alford to a swim and two daiquiris. Before she knew it, her “first
time” was taking place on first lady Jacqueline’s bed. Kennedy contin-
ued the affair until his assassination. Alford recounts the liaison in her
memoir, telling how Kennedy once put her in the “unforgivable” posi-
tion of pressuring her to perform a sexual favor on one of his aides—­
while he observed.3 To think many people worried that Kennedy would
take his orders from the pope.
Because he could, President Clinton invited White House volunteer
Kathleen Willey into a private Oval Office hallway where he groped her
breasts and then placed her hands on his privates. This was not consen-
sual. Clinton’s eighteen-­month affair with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky was consensual. Still, she was quite young, he aggressively en-
couraged the affair, and he was her boss, not to mention the president of
the United States. Clinton relied on Lewinsky’s constant adulation, fre-
quent “non-­sex,” and willingness to become his cigar holder to boost his
fragile ego. Eventually, he exercised a shakedown effort on both Willey
and Lewinsky to influence their testimonies after stories of his fondling
leaked.4
Many paths lead to the White House. Obama decided to take the
path that had been blazed by a long line of cheaters, seduction mas-
ters, and swindlers. He was a careful student of Kennedy and Clinton,
quickly picking up on their least-­becoming traits and using his knowl-
edge to build himself into a far bigger player. As far as we know, Obama
was never a player in the sense that Clinton and Kennedy were; Obama
was a whole new kind of player.

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 O pe r at ion P ic k u p L i n e  / 3

As if there was any doubt, Clinton outright told us that he lived

“parallel lives.”5 As he racked up rendezvous, Clinton utilized a spe-
cial calendar to track the days on which he actually behaved himself.6
Obama was more guarded; he kept his wild cards close to his vest and
his second life is just now coming to light.
Only, Obama did not use his sway to get White House interns to
carry out sexual favors; he used his power to extort votes from young
swing voters. From Obama’s perspective, it must have been more titil-
lating than a swinger club: after young people gave him their votes, he
returned their favors with official and unofficial policies that destroyed
their social, cultural, and economic opportunities.
Groupies will go to their graves arguing that Kennedy and Clinton
made mistakes in their private lives but were excellent leaders overall.
Groupies can’t make this argument for Obama. The reverse is true: he
led a wholesome-­looking private life and made colossal public mistakes
that set back an entire generation—­forever.
No one can defend Obama’s actions (as they tried for Clinton) by
saying: “It’s none of our business. Even if he was president, it was still his
private life!” Obama did not seduce one busty babe in a bathroom; his
quest was 30 percent of the U.S. population.
When a sober man makes the same public promises over and over
again, and then signs policies that break these promises, he is operating
with careful calculation. Obama knew what he was doing and he was
not acting under the influence of a fine Scotch whiskey.
We had every right to expect our presidents to behave with integrity.
Think about it. We gave these men and their families free rent for eight
years in a mansion, we paid for their vacations; we handed them the
most powerful and high-­profile job on earth; we fetched them in lim-
ousines; we flew them cross-­continental in Air Force One, and we sup-
plied them with an army of chefs, bodyguards, and assistants to attend
to their every whim. It is silly to defend presidents after they abuse their
power and bite the hands that fed them—­our hands.
No matter what Obama, Clinton, or Kennedy’s groupies say, big

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 4 / l e t m e b e c l e a r

shots are capable of leading with fortitude. Certainly, not every power-
ful, burdened, charismatic, and handsome male has become a con man
just because he could.
Case in point: Steve Jobs. The late cofounder of Apple possessed
comparable power, charisma, and good looks to those of Kennedy, Clin-
ton, and Obama. As the billionaire entrepreneur who built Apple into
the world’s most valuable company, he could have scored with his choice
of paramours. Jobs juggled a global business empire with family life plus
the strain of pancreatic cancer. He honored his commitments: He was
loyal to his wife Laurene through their twenty-­year marriage; he led
Apple with integrity; he received the first National Medal of Technol-
ogy from President Ronald Reagan; he barred porn on Apple apps when
his competitors did the opposite; he advised Clinton to come clean on
Lewinsky, and he told Obama to stop ripping off the American dream
with his policies.7 Jobs made some mistakes as a young man, but he was
not a hypocrite. He sincerely repented of his omissions and matured
into a devoted father, faithful husband, and businessman of integrity.
We could also bring up Presidents Ronald Reagan or George Wash-
ington as examples of big shots who were also good guys. But because
Jobs was a registered Democrat, we now have a case for powerful men to
behave with integrity that no liberal can tear asunder.
Reflecting on the legacies of our three most charismatic Democratic
presidents in recent memory, the question becomes:
Who was the biggest con man?

1. Kennedy: For bedding an intern willing to play naughty

nurse behind the back of a married mother?
2. Clinton: For coaxing sexual favors from a young coquette
throwing him kisses in public and teasing him with her thong
at the office? 8
or

3. Obama: For taking advantage of the hope and trust of an en-

tire generation of young Americans and permanently setting
them back economically, morally, and socially.

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 Notes

Dear Barack Obama

1. Citation tk.

1: Operation Pickup Line

1. Zeke J. Miller, “The Politics of the Millennial Generation,” Time, accessed

May 14, 2013, http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/09/millennial-­politics/.
2. David Hancock, “Clinton Cheated ‘Because I Could,’ ” CBS News, June 16,
2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-­18563_162-­623570.html.
3. Mimi Alford, Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and
Its Aftermath (New York: Random House, 2012), 40–­45, 47–­50, 101–­2.
4. Ann Coulter, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1998), 33, 51–­55, 71–­72, 83–­89; Ken Starr,
“Where Are They Now: The Clinton Impeachment,” Time, January 9, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1870544
_1870543_1870469,00.html.
5. Bill Clinton, My Life (New York: Knopf, 2004), 811.
6. Andrew Morton, Monica’s Story (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 113–­14.
7. Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 39, 192–­93,
272, 278, 516–­17, 544–­46.
8. Morton, Monica’s Story, 59, 63.
9. Tom Agan, “Embracing the Millennials’ Mind-­Set at Work,” New York Times,
November 9, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/jobs/embracing-­the
-­millennials-­mind-­set-­at-­work.html.
10. Miller, “The Politics of the Millennial Generation.”
11. Emily Alpert, “What’s in Millennials’ Wallets? Fewer Credit Cards,” Los Angeles
Times, May 18, 2013, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/18/local/la-­me​
-­credit-­cards-­millennials-­20130519.
12. Amy Chozick, “Longing to Stay Wanted, MTV Turns Its Attention to Younger
Viewers,” New York Times, June 17, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06
/18/business/media/longing-­to-­stay-­wanted-­mtv-­turns-­its-­attention-­to-­younger
-­viewers.html.
13. David Horowitz, Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model
(Sherman Oaks, CA: David Horowitz Freedom Center, 2009), 3–­15.
14. David Maraniss, Barack Obama: The Story (New York: Simon & Schuster,
2012), 552.

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