When you were recently elected as the 44th President of the United States we, too, felt that you represented a beacon of hope for the world, and looked forward to a change in the old ways, and to a future where politics played second-fiddle to policy, and where policy was conducted on a truly bipartisan and consultative basis. We were inspired by your pledge to bring strong ethics to government and your promise to engage our friends and our foes around the world, as you worked to help solve the numerous challenges faced by the global community.

Sadly, just days after your inauguration, our dreams have been shattered, as US politics has quickly reverted to business as usual, and you personally have made a number of missteps and blunders.

Here are the issues that have given us cause for concern:

Ethics

The nomination of Tim Geithner as your Treasury Secretary

Competent as Geithner no doubt is to undertake this role, at a time when the country is morally outraged about the behaviour of so-called 'greedy' executives, you simply cannot have a man who failed to pay his taxes in charge of The Internal Revenue Service. This is hypocrisy. How can Geithner take the moral high road on bank bonuses, for instance, when he was walking the low road where his personal taxes were concerned ?

Bipartisanship

We all appreciate the urgent need for the stimulus package you have been working to get through Congress, but to push this through without consulting with members of the Republican opposition makes your pledge to talk through options with all sections of the political community seem rather hollow. As a result, the House vote on the package was split strictly along party lines - hardly the most auspicious of starts.

Governing Without Confrontation

Unfortunately we have already seen several incidences where you have failed to live up to expectations:

a) Your jibe at former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain earlier this week for spending TARP money on an office suite upgrade was ill-advised and just plain wrong. These monies, which Thain has now agreed to reimburse, were spent several months before Merrill Lynch had access to TARP funding.

b) Your instruction to Geithner to demand that Citigroup cancel that $50m jet delivery was ill-conceived. The company, which is already in the midst of a huge cost-cutting initiative, had looked over the options, and decided it was more cost effective to take delivery of the plane and then resell it. The involvement of your government in this matter, although perhaps good for your public image, will cost Citi's stockholders even more money, and may end up resulting in even more Citi staff being laid-off because of your interference. You must remember that you have been elected to run the largest country in the world, not what was once one of the country's largest banks.

c) The co-ordinated attack on the country's banks, launched Thursday, is unforgivable. To alienate an important part of the community, and to drive a wedge between Main Street and Wall Street, is not a smart move. We all need to work together to resolve this mess, not waste time posturing and finger-pointing. Furthermore, your own comments on this matter Thursday evening, whilst US stocks markets remained open, resulted in a significant sell-off in bank stocks. You need to remember that many ordinary people have investments in bank stocks in their 401(k)s, and indulging in this kind of unnecessary behaviour is irresponsible.

d) The remarks made by a member of your administration accusing the Chinese of currency manipulation will not do much for international cooperation, and appears totally at odds will your pledge to engage in an open and honest debate with those who behave in ways that may affect the national interest.

So, Sir, we respectfully write this letter in the hope that you can quickly get back on message, and govern the country (and lead the world) in the manner you presaged during your election campaign. Can you do this ? We hope you can.

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