English subtitles for clip: File:Inside the White House- Letters to the President.webm

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(birds chirping)

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The President:
These letters, I think, do more to keep me in touch with what's

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happening around the country
than just about anything else.

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(birds chirping)

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Some of them are funny,
some of them are angry,

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a lot of them are sad or
frustrated about their current situation.

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Mr. Kelleher:
In his first week as President, he asked for ten letters every

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day and every day since,
we've given it to him.

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(music playing)

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We get 65,000 paper
letters every week,

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we get something like 100,000
e-mails, 1,000 faxes,

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2,500 to 3,500 calls per day.

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And our job is to take all that
information in, to do it --

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the best analysis we can about
what we're hearing from the

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public and respond individually
to all those folks so they know

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that the President is listening.

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(music playing)

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Anyone that sends a message to
us, it comes into our offices,

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our staff sorts through them,
they identify those that meet

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our three tests: Are they
something that's representative

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of the mail that's coming in, is
it representative of something

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in the news, and is it something
that's a compelling message?

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They pile that mail together;
some of it ends up here on my desk.

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(music playing)

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I sort through it,
categorize it by issue,

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and then every day I go through
them and pick the ten that best

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represent what's
happening right now.

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It's a good dialogue -- a
direct relationship between

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constituents who have these
concerns and the President who

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desperately wants to
get those messages.

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The President's talked
about being in a bubble,

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and our job is to make sure that
he gets out of it every day.

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(music playing)

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Hey, Joni.

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>> Hey, Mike.

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Mr. Kelleher:
How you doing?

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>> Great, how're you doing?

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Mr. Kelleher:
Good.

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How's everybody doing?

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>> Thank you.

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Everyone's doing well.

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(music playing)

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>> Hey, Katie.

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Ms. Johnson:
Thank you.

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So this is for tomorrow?

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>> Yep.

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Ms. Johnson:
Okay.

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>> Is that good?

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Ms. Johnson:
Yep.

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I'll give it to him.

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He probably replies to somewhere
between three and four a night,

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so over the course of the week,
you're writing 15 to 20 letters.

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So he writes a lot.

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And he hand writes every
single one of them.

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Some are longer,
some are shorter,

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and the issues totally vary.

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(music playing)

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The President:
Lately, I've been getting a lot of health care letters and this

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is a good example.

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"Dear Mr. Obama, my
son-in-law, age 42,

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had a heart valve
replaced two years ago.

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His wife and two children pay $1,200 per month for health insurance.

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They cannot get another provider
because he has a pre-existing condition.

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He's now unemployed, so my
husband and myself are helping them.

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We're in our mid-60s and this
is draining our retirement."

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There's so many letters like
that that I'm receiving every day.

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You know, here's another one.

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A woman whose husband retired
from AT&T at 61 is waiting to

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get on Medicare.

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You now have the company in
negotiations with the union and

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may decide to stop
health care for retirees.

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Got another one, an antique
business in Alabama,

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they are on the verge of losing
their business because they just

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can't afford to
pay the premiums --

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their premiums increased $70
per month just this month.

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So a lot of the stories
are heartbreaking.

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People who work hard -- a
lot of times they'll say,

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"I've never written
to a President before,

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I'm not looking for a handout, all I want is just a fair shake in."

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And it ends up being a powerful
motivator for me when we try to

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move this health agenda forward.

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Now, some of them are more
cheerful and, you know,

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this one for example.

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"With all the huge money
difficulties facing our country,

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I thought you might like to see
how someone spent their $250

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stimulus money.

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Thank you for all the pleasures
from tending my raised bed and

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from the vegetables
I hope to enjoy."

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So she set up a vegetable garden
and she sent me a picture.

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There's a beautiful letter that I got just a couple of days ago

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I'm going to be responding -- from a woman who had found a

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letter and she's
forwarded it to me,

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a letter from her father when
he was fighting in World War II.

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She had just been born and he
had just gotten news of her

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birth and he sent this letter,
"My Dearest Daughter..."

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And explained what he was doing
in Europe during World War II

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and why this was so important
and what the country meant to

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him and that someday she'd
be old enough to read it and

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understand why this
was so important.

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You know, you get letters
like that and it --

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it gives you a sense of what's
best about America and inspires

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you, and makes you want to work
that much harder to make sure

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that that -- that spirit is reflected in our government.