The President's Necktie

A lavender-blue, wide necktie that hung almost perfectly straight drove the President’s message home to this fashion-savvy politico. The color echoes that of the early morning dawn, or the rebirth of the American Dream to the citizens of the United States of America.

“Americans do not care about politics – they have real life issues,” our fearless leader confidently claimed last night, and he’s right.

The average person does not care about politics, they care about their families and themselves. One key example that President Obama pointed out was that parents are postponing retirement to send their kids to college, my parents fall into this shoebox, which is just one in a few million that could take up the entire Mall of America.

He referenced the baby boomer vision of the American Dream, and put the responsibility of bringing it back on the Armani-suited shoulders of the elected officials of Congress.

I sharply disagree with one of Chuck Todd’s comments last night about the President’s American Jobs Act legislation plan. Todd said there’s a marketing plan, but what he doesn’t see is a legislative plan to “ram rod” this bill through the House and Senate. Chuck, not only do I disagree with your opinion, I really disagree with your tie.

What Obama’s speech inspired me to do was tweet, call, write, blog, and email my elected officials to make them vote for the President’s legislation. If we Americans put enough pressure on the members of Congress that represent us, it can pass. Yes, there’s a full-swing Presidential Primary going on in the Republican Party right now, but, “we can’t wait 14 months.”

Politics is the art of compromise, and what the President implied he was proposing is a piece of legislation that both parties can agree on because it involves several compromises on issues.

I challenge every single person who reads this blog to not judge a shoebox by its cover and to read the American Jobs Act. If you support it, call the elected officials who represent you and are supposed to have your best interest at heart and tell them to support it too.

On a side note, what was Hilary wearing? And Mr. Speaker, you consistently disappoint me in your tie selection. From your St. Patrick’s Day green tie to the cotton candy-colored blob you wore last night… It’s always a fashion fail for you.

Obama's Jobs Speech: The Politico in Stilettos' Thoughts

It's interesting that CNN's American Morning anchors were asking guests on yesterday morning’s show, "what do you want to hear in a jobs plan?"

Sure, we'd all like to hear something to make us sleep easier at night with dreams of financial stability in our heads. But is that what we need?

This 26-year-old is tired of being babied. America take off the Pampers training pants and put your big girl panties on!

I am exhausted of hearing about all the Republican candidates’ jobs plans. They’re basically the same thing with different wording and the bullet points are in different sequences.

What are college kids thinking right now? Or are they even concerned about it? If I was in undergrad right now, I’d be scared of not being able to find a job after graduation. Sure, there is always graduate school, but that’s not a permanent solution.

So if I had been a guest on CNN this morning and they asked me, “what would you like to hear in a jobs speech?” Here’s what I’d say…

The question isn’t what would I like to hear, it’s what should I hear. I should hear the scary reality that our nation is facing issues of mountainous proportions right now, and creating jobs is yes, one of those elephant-sized issues. I should hear that America as a whole is going to have to work as a team to get back on track… that at the end of the day, it’s big corporations and small businesses, it’s Democrats and Republicans working together for the good of the country, not for their own agenda.

And I applaud Rachel Maddow’s clip that aired during a break on Morning Joe this morning where she confidently conveys what huge things America has been capable of, and will continue to be capable of.

The movie A Beautiful Mind made an excellent point: the greatest outcome will come by doing what’s good for yourself and what’s good for the group. When small businesses do their part, when corporations do their part (and nothing super scandalous obviously), when we all strive to reach the same big, broad goal, it can be achieved. If we focus all our energy on obtaining set goals for both ourselves, our jobs, and our country, I deeply believe we will see things shift for the better.

In my opinion, the President’s job speech should not tell about all the jobs he is going to create. It should ignite a flame inside each and every one of us and motivate the nation to get to work. I should hear a speech that will make me work harder each and every day, that inspires me to start my own business on the side and be able to employ a college student part-time so they are able to contribute to the economy by choosing to pay back their student loans while enrolled in school (or buy shoes).

President Obama needs to inspire the nation this evening, which is the very thing he did when he ran for President. No, he need not give a campaign speech, as most people are probably expecting. He needs to ignite that spark inside each and every American from the beginning to the end of this speech this evening.

Robert Frost wrote in his poem The Road Not Taken, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Where there is a will, there is a way. Look at the feats this nation has accomplished when America takes its own path. After all, that’s what America is founded upon.

What happened to quality in America?

After returning from a relaxing weekend in South Carolina, where I left my iPhone in the guest house and the iPad zipped up in my laptop bag, I think I finally found the outside perspective I was looking for these past few months. During the time I was there, every conversation with my Godparents, my Father, and the many, many people we chatted with, boiled down to one thing: quality.

Monday evening I turned on the boob tube for the first time in four days, and there was nothing of any quality I wanted to watch. As I flipped the channels, I realized there’s not much more than a bunch of pollution we Americans choose to spend our time absorbing. Even the news lacks quality. Why do I think this? First off, reporters choose topics they feel are relevant that the public needs to know about. They gather stories from sources and conduct research, then compile all that information into a story of what they feel is comprised of the most relevant information. Then, this article gets sent to and editor, who revises it further. The final product has gone through at least two cycles of edits before reaching the public. And depending on who is writing and doing the editing, what’s being reported just might not be factual. Take Fox News as a shining example. Also, will Hilary’s hair really matter in a year? Maybe in a historic costume book, but overall no. So why is the media talking about her hair so much? It drives me nuts!

My Godmother actually made Glenn Beck’s rally make sense to me, because the message she got from his escapade was one of having hope and faith. She talked about how America is in a time now where we do not trust politicians, but at the end of the day, no one can take away our hope and our faith. While on the trip home from relaxing Briar’s Creek (briarscreek.com), I couldn’t help but remember that Obama ran on change and hope. Obama’s message of hope and change may have won him the White House, but what I feel we lack in our President, and several other politicians, is faith. The quality of their campaigns must match the quality of their effectiveness as elected leaders. We, as a people, are tired of being the subjects of political marketing campaigns and subliminal brainwashing. What happened to the values America was founded on? Can you remember then? Do they represent us today?

What happened to the quality of life of the people of the United States? In Europe, they test food products several times before distributing it to their people. Here, we wait until ten or fifteen people die or end up in the hospital before the FDA steps in. If we don’t care about the quality of products we’re selling in grocery stores across the nation, what does that say about how elected leaders feel about those they represent? No wonder girls at the age of six are starting their periods because they have too many lipids in their diets.

Most importantly, what happened to caring about the quality of life for my children and my grandchildren? It seems we develop campaign strategies to get politicians elected today or tomorrow, but no one polls about where we want to see things in ten or twenty years. Where are the politicians with the long-term plans for our nation? When I purchased my car back in April, I selected the safest vehicle they make. Why not something sporty? Within the next ten years I probably will have children, and I will most likely still be driving that car. Planning ahead, a long way ahead, and working backwards to set goals to get us where we want to be is the only way we’re ever going to get anywhere.

It seems we’re too caught up in frivolous campaign efforts that sling so much mud back and forth we all look like we just came from an underground coal mine. We’re sick of the negative campaigning. We’re ready for positive, quality candidates with solid long-term plans for improving the quality of our nation. WWhy are the DNC and the RNC raising millions of dollars for campaign efforts just to keep a few people in their seats? Think how many other efforts that money could go to, like sending kids to college who can’t pay for it, or putting some of it towards paying off our tremendous debt, or for testing food products before we eat them. While I understand it’s important to keep elected officials in office, (if elections weren’t important I wouldn’t have a job), what’s even more important is the work they do for those they represent. Now, more than ever, when we’ve lost faith in the quality of American government, we need to push for more open government, (also called Gov 2.0), and take back America not for ourselves, but for future generations. Being selfish never got anyone anywhere.