President Obama introduced Secretary of Health and Human Services Nominee Kathleen Sebelius this week on Tuesday while simultaneously introducing a new tie that featured in excess of five different shades of silver.

Sebelius replaces Obama’s initial nominee, Tom Daschle, who withdrew in February to dodge answering questions about his tax record. As with Gary Locke, Obama’s choice to wear a new Presidential tie while putting forth a second-string Cabinet member is not a fluke – he hopes to deliver fresh perspective on the new nominees by distracting the public with distinct neck accessories.

Tuesday, the President wore his “American striped” neck tie for the fourth time since taking office. Neck of State has two theories to explain the blatant overuse of this particular tie:

• His meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown necessitated a strong statement of American will and a reminder of what happened the last time our nations entered into conflict. Use of an American striped tie could be a subtle, but succinct, jab between world leaders.
• He was momentarily distracted by creepy journalists incessantly talking about Michelle Obama’s arms and how they are becoming the “stuff of legend”. In his temporary confusion, he may have accidentally worn an overused tie.

At Neck of State we see these of both these theories as plausible, but tend to believe that neck wear choices are never accidents.

On Wednesday, the President wore “Big Red” (a GOP crowd pleaser) when he was joined by Senator John McCain to discuss the reform of government contracting. By wearing a red neck tie, President Obama made it clear that there will be a resolute bipartisan stand to putting contractor excesses to an end.

Finally, Thursday, the President attended the White House Forum on Health Care Reform in his green tie with white stripes. Senator Edward Kennedy, a champion of health care reform, made a surprise visit to the forum, and Obama chose to show solidarity with the Senator’s struggle through illness by wearing a tie that symbolizes the healing power of the earth.

Emphasis mine.

Leaving aside that President Obama spent his first eleven days in office undoing every Bush Policy that he could find (certainly a sign of individuality), the assertion of this piece lies in direct contradiction to the fact that the President wore at least two neckties that were neither red nor blue during his first eleven days in office.

On January 26th, President Obama signed an executive order enabling fourteen states to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions and fuel efficiency for cars and trucks. He is pictured below during the signing of this “green” legislation wearing a dark green tie.

Original Photo Credit: Getty Images/Mark Wilson

To their credit, the NY Daily News did include this tie in their analysis, they just inappropriately labeled it as dark blue. Neck of State has analyzed several photos of the President from the 26th of January, and in all of our tests, the tie came up as more green than blue.

Just a few days later on January 29th, Obama posed with Lillly Ledbetter, the namesake of recent legislation that makes it easier for women to file fair-pay lawsuits. His tie in the snapshot below is not only neither red nor blue, but also carries a non-traditional “static” pattern.

Original Photo Credit: Getty Images/Mark Wilson

Together, these tie choices represent more than 20% of the ties that the President wore on business days during his first eleven days in office.

The Daily News clearly came to a conclusion based on their expectation of what Barack Obama would wear simply because, yes, many people in Northwest Washington D.C. wear red or blue ties. They wrote what they thought listeners wanted to hear, and didn’t bother to actually look at the data. Luckily, Neck of State did bother:

Pictured above are President Obama’s neck ties for his first nine business-days in office. From left to right are the ties he wore on January 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 of this year.

At Neck of State we carefully catalog the President’s ties every day, and we will never report based on preconceived notions of Washington D.C. fashion. We look forward to sharing the patterns that emerge with our readers as we continue our research. For pictures of all the ties that the President has worn since taking office, please visit the Tie Gallery.

Daily News story via Yahoo News.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed last week, and on Friday President Obama trumpeted the achievement in his fourth weekly address to the nation. From the address:

Congress has passed my economic recovery plan – an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it. It will save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, ignite spending by business and consumers alike, and lay a new foundation for our lasting economic growth and prosperity.
…
Our debt has doubled over the past eight years, and we’ve inherited a trillion-dollar deficit – which we must add to in the short term in order to jumpstart our sick economy. But our long-term economic growth demands that we tame our burgeoning federal deficit; that we invest in the things we need, and dispense with the things we don’t. This is a challenging agenda, but one we can and will achieve.
…
It will take time, and it will take effort, but working together, we will turn this crisis into opportunity and emerge from our painful present into a brighter future.

Emphasis mine.

The President’s address was rife with powerful metaphors. By igniting spending, we can jumpstart our sick economy, tame the deficit, and emerge from our painful present into a brighter future. The words describe something like a Transformer with low batteries fighting a lion in the circus, and such confusing imagery can only mean that the President’s true intention was to direct our attention to more powerful metaphors via his unprecedented necktie.

Obama’s choice of a tie that’s neither red nor blue shows that he’s not only above partisanship, but also above bipartisanship. With all the emphasis that gets placed on reaching across the aisle, the President has found it necessary to point out that bipartisan is not the same as correct. Some GOP senators are crying foul at this behavior, while other more compliant senators apparently didn’t get a chance to read the bill. Meanwhile, the President sits in style in the Oval Office pushing his agenda through relatively unhindered.

President Obama made a series of appearances this week in Town Hall style meetings where he tried to win broad public support for his ailing economic stimulus plan. Because, like fairies, stimulus plans can only survive if you believe in them. It’s Neverlandian democracy in action.

Obama’s only other recourse for stimulating the stimulus is to either send out massive amounts of spam or to showcase a new series of presidential neck ties. This week, the President donned three ties that had never before graced the White House, which stands in severe contrast to last week’s unprecedented tie reuse, and could indicate that he is willing to burn more political capital on the recovery legislation than his opponents thought.

Thursday also marked the first time that the President has worn a tie with stripes that have a “negative” slope (a.k.a. “American striped”), a move that’s been hailed as evidence that’s he’s disgusted with both Republicans and Democrats for their infantile posturing and ready to move on to consistent, clear communication through the latest in neck wear fashions.

UPDATE: Reanalysis of an earlier neck tie revealed that this is not in fact the first time that Obama has word the American striped tie.

Original Photo Credit: Getty Images/Mark Wilson

Equal pay for equal work done by men and women was an influential issue during the 2008 presidential campaign because it set Barack Obama distinctly apart from John McCain.  Obama repeatedly attacked McCain for his failure to support the Equal Pay Act (which McCain called  a “boon for trail lawyers”).

On Thursday President Obama fulfilled his promise to set things right for Lilly Ledbetter by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The Act, which was soundly defeated in 2008 by republicans in the senate, passed there earlier this week opposed by every single republican male with the exception of Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter (all other present senators voted in favor of the bill). Obama also met with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the Oval Office to discuss what they both deemed a “whack” economy.

Both meetings, economically motivated as they were, saw Obama wearing an enterprising greenback-colored, static-patterned necktie.  The color scheme obviously supports the theme of economic stimulus, repair, and recovery that the President trumpeted this week, culminating in yesterday’s meetings.  Neck of State could not immediately confirm speculation that the static pattern is a reference to the House’s rejection of his request to delay the transition to digital television.

Original Photo Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

During his campaign, Barack Obama was constantly detailing his plans to address the single most important problem facing Americans, an issue that we at Neck of State summarize as iraqeconoeduhealthenercation. On Wednesday, he made a stop at the Pentagon to show his vested interest in addressing the country’s other single most important problem: defense.  The stripes on President Obama’s tie represent his multi-faceted approach to the single most important problem that this country faces, because in the Obama administration, every problem is the most important one.  We are once again impressed by the President’s ability to engage systems level thinking on all levels of government and wardrobe.

Original Photo Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

Barack Obama spent the larger portion of Thursday undoing executive orders put in place my the Bush administration.  The dimple’s a bit out of alignment on this solid burgundy tie – President Obama was clearly in a rush to start reversing every act President Bush took in his two terms.  Again, we see that Obama chooses a red tie when he’s calling attention to the activities of his Predecessor.

Orders of interest coming out this week include:

• Guantanamo Bay must be closed within a year.
• The U.S. Army Field Manual is now the official standard for interrogation for all U.S. personnel; it prohibits waterboarding as well as threats, coercion, and physical abuse.
• Anyone in the White House who currently makes more than $100k is getting a pay freeze.
• Executive branch employees are now prohibited from taking gifts from lobbyists.
• Executive branch employees may now only be hired based on qualifications, competence, and experience, as opposed to political connections.
• Other officials besides the President can no longer claim executive privilege to keep executive-branch documents sealed. In particular, presidential pets and Dick Cheney may no longer claim that their communications are protected by separation of powers.

(more details on the orders can be found here and here)

While it was not expanded in an official executive order, Obama has informally rejected the Bush Doctrine Jacket Regulation, which required the President to be wearing a full suit at all times in the white house.  At Neck of State, this comes as no surprise.  No jacket means that the President’s neck wear will always be in unobstructed sight for photographers, the secret service, and the public.  The president has created an atmosphere of total transparency in both government and ties.

Update: President Obama also destroyed the Global Gag Rule.

For his presidential portrait, Barack Obama wisely selected a blue tie with red and white stripes.  Nothing could more clearly state his dedication to the Democratic grassroots base that made his election possible, but the red stripes show his devotion to bring all parties together to get the United States moving again.

Barack Obama inspires confidence in all those around him.  He’s been compared to Aragorn, Optimus Prime, and Alice Abernathy.  By projecting this confidence through his speech, his demeanor, and his neckties, he shows us that he’s a 21st century president who understands systems level thinking.

Original Photo Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet… On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics… Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America… As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

(emphasis mine)

It’s January 20th, 2009.  Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States of America, and he comes to us with promises of hope, change, and imminent disaster.  This was not a State of the Union address, and as such there was very little detail about where we should go from here.  He spoke boldly of the challenge facing America, and passionately about the task awaiting us as a nation.  For the next four years, this speech is the standard to which he will be repeatedly held.

Here at Neck of State, we look beyond the spin surrounding President Obama’s speech to ask something more important:  What tie was he wearing, and what does that say about his message?  Obama’s choice of a red patterned tie with a dimpled Pratt knot, along with the use of the adjective ’strangled’ is hardly a coincidence. Red makes it clear who he thinks is to blame for the horrific challenges that he’s describing, while the Pratt knot has long been known as the knot of hope, and calling partisan dogmas out for strangling our politics clearly delineates the presence of the underlying message  (vis a vis his necktie).  The New York Times posted tag clouds for every inaugural address in U.S. history, and each speech has themes and unique features (for example, Preisdent Obama seems to be the only one who ever thought it was worthwhile to pair the word “women” with every occurence of “men”).

Mr. President, we look forward watching you carry your message out this term in your eloquent speeches, carefully planned budgetting and legislation, generous funding of education and science, liberal application of that whole ‘everybody’s equal’ concept, and your meticulously selected neckwear.