Today, the White House published a telling photo of the President unveiling his true power in a move that may change human-kind’s understanding of what it means to wear a tie.

Note: The thin, white halo around the President’s head appears in the original photo provided by the White House.

Executive branch officials may claim that this effect is a simple coincidence of lighting, but some fringe analysts suspect that the photo warrants a new interpretation of the President’s use of neckties. They insist that the President’s neck wear choices say less about what he intends to project outward to an audience than they say about a secret, formidable, faith-based power he is hiding within.

While Neckofstate’s official position has long been that neck wear is used to supplement a message, the photograph above reveals that the President may be rethinking the scope of influence that neckties, or the lack thereof, could have on the political landscape.

In his seventh weekly address to the nation, President Obama spent enormous efforts making clear distinctions between the past, present, and future of our national economy. From the video:

Yesterday, we learned that the economy lost another 651,000 jobs in the month of February, which brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to 4.4 million. The unemployment rate has now surpassed 8 percent, the highest rate in a quarter century.
…
My administration inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, the largest in history. And we’ve inherited a budgeting process as irresponsible as it is unsustainable. For years, as Wall Street used accounting tricks to conceal costs and avoid responsibility, Washington did, too.

These kinds of irresponsible budgets — and inexcusable practices — are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.

Emphasis mine.

Obama chose to wear his dark-blue tie with white dots (”Starry Night”) for this address, which is in line with discussions about the flow of time and how it affects our national economy. Our view of the stars is based on cataclysmic events that occurred anywhere from years to centuries ago. By wearing “Starry Night” Obama implicitly reminds the audience that he is intervening in a crisis whose apparent effects were caused by events in the distant past.

Obama has worn “Starry Night” four times since taking office, and this was his second time wearing it for a weekly address to the nation. Current Neck of State projections place this tie as an executive favorite for the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency.

In his sixth weekly address to the nation, President Obama came off the blocks like a leopard at Gallipoli, vehemently reasserting his dedication changing the direction of the United States, no matter who it angers in Washington. From the video:

I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families. I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:

So am I.

Emphasis mine.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen that Obama is ready to fight. When it comes to the policies of the Bush administration, it seems like Obama is resorting to the hatchet rather than the scalpel. The latest Bush trademark to get cut is none other than the Iraq War. On Friday President Obama announced that he would end U.S. combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010. Bringing the war to a responsible end was central to Obama’s campaign platform, so this move in itself does not come as a large surprise.

But nobody expected that he would end the war while wearing the same tie that he used when closing the facility at Guantanamo Bay. During his campaign to be President, Obama repeatedly promised he’d bring a new attitude to the war on terrorism. The two most important steps he has thus far taken in implementing this vision were the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and now ending the Iraq War, and he did both in the same neck tie. Neck of State hopes that the President will consistently reshape the country’s military strategy while wearing this austere burgundy accessory.

White House Photo / Pete Souza

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.