The Washington Post reports that every day President Obama is given 10 uncensored letters from the American people.  The article highlights the work of the Office of Presidential Correspondence and Mike Kelleher the director of OPC.

Kelleher, an Illinois native who once worked as the outreach director for Obama’s Senate office, had been instructed to remain unbiased in picking the contents of the purple folder. The president wanted not necessarily the best pieces of mail, or the longest, or the most encouraging, he told aides. He wanted a representative sample: letters complimentary and critical, elegant and hurried. So Kelleher made it his habit to look at the daily metrics of incoming mail — for example, 60 percent about health-care reform, 30 percent about jobs, 10 percent about Iraq — and reflect that same mix in picking the day’s 10 letters….

Photo from Pete Souza-White House via Washington Post

[President Obama] typically returns five to 15 letters each week, aides said, and he tends to write back most regularly to level-headed critics, military veterans and destitute Americans who maintain their optimism. He gravitates toward messages that “inspire,” said Valerie Jarrett, his close friend and adviser, and prefers mail that provides a “counterbalance to business in Washington” and transports him someplace else.

A couple of things in this piece that excite me: 1) You can be a paid to read mail (called a “mail analyst” in that federal government way)… $36,000/year isn’t bad in D.C. 2) There are volunteers who work at the The Office of Presidential Correspondence! Some quick Google searching suggests, however, that this is the kind of volunteer gig that is “full time” and therefore open only to rich people and older ladies.  3) Obama writes 5-15 letters each week?!  Oh heavens I need to step up my game.  I write 2-4 letters in a good week I’m (now) embarrassed to admit.