Dear Mr. President,

Kudos to you Mr. President, the debate last night was one of the best-played bluffs in the history of debates. You sucked Gov. Romney into your web like dirt up a vacuum, allowing him to repeat his lies over and over again. Watching you was like watching the final table at a championship poker tournament, with the chip leader giving up just enough to suck his opponent into going all in.

I could see it was nearly killing you to keep your cool… the ‘tells’ were easy to spot, like a poker player pulling his hood up when he has a really good hand, in hopes that the others won’t see his excitement. Your ‘tells’ were nodding in the affirmative like you were agreeing with him, encouraging him to continue, pursing your lips at obvious lies, and appearing to take notes that you didn’t actually use to refute his continuous lies and misrepresentations.

Of course all of my left leaning, dyed in the wool, Democratic friends were imploding all over Facebook. No one could believe how poorly you were doing, no pushback, no hitting him with your record, no reference to the 47% video… you just let him run off at the mouth, like he usually does. Even at the conclusion when Romney’s family all came up on stage, you and the First Lady walked quietly offstage leaving the crowd to cheer for Romney.

I think I know why you played your hand this way… 1. Get Romney to reveal all of his talking points in the first debate. 2. Gather as many lies and inconsistencies to use in new ads. 3. Give Romney the illusion that he’s got you on a bad hand, so he goes all in, while you’re already holding the straight flush. 4. Send the Vice President into his debate with Ryan, with all the ammunition he’ll need to mop the floor with him, and 5. Get all of Romney’s million dollar donors back in his game, committing their dollars back to him and not the down ticket candidates.

A very dangerous strategy for anyone in politics, except you Mr. President, because you have the brains, the facts, and the confidence to pull it all back together in the next debate. However, the next debate has to be ‘ALL IN’ for you, you’ve held your cards close, you’ve bluffed long enough to give your opponent a sense of false security and confidence, now it’s time to put him away… game over.

When the pundits come to their senses, they’ll realize you threw the first hand, and very nearly overplayed it with your terrible performance, but those of us who know just how smart you are, and what a great chess player you are, weren’t fooled.

Now it’s time to ante up and bring it home to the American people, we deserve the gold bracelet just as much as you do.

Most Respectfully,