At Neck of State, we do believe that the 100 day mark is valuable, particularly with a presidency that begins in an era as perilous as 2009. The mainstream media, however, is missing the the most important dimension of assessment. Obama should not be evaluated on his bipartisanship, his domestic policies, his international appeal, his public addresses, his presidential memos, his grassroots outreach, or even his Portuguese water dog.

Obama needs to be graded on, and held accountable for, his neckties and other neck accessories. This exactly parallels the mission of Neck of State.

Since taking office, Barack Obama has worn twenty-four different neckties in public, photographed appearances. Obama’s top seven neckties reveal a lot about the type of administration he is crafting:

This chart displays the appearance frequency for each of Obama’s seven favorite ties, as counted during his first 100 days in office.

President Obama knows exactly what he wants, and he goes after it with the gusto and drive worthy of our Commander In Chief. In the case of neck wear, this means wearing his favorite ties early and often. All of Obama’s “fav seven” are either red or blue, and this reflects his Rehnquistian commitment to balance and bipartisanship. While the President is dedicated to hearing voices on both sides of the aisle, he displays extreme bias in his choice of neckties. He wore each of his top seven ties within the first two weeks of his term. Ties outside of the top seven, however, haven’t been knotted up more than three times, and several only made it out of the closet once. (See the bottom of this post for a complete listing of Obama’s Presidential ties.)

Public opinion Obama’s job record continues to hover in the thermosphere.  Because the President and his valedictocracy are adept at correlating fashion sense with public opinion, we predict that the top seven neckties will continue to have a forceful showing for the remainder of the term.

Barack Obama’s Seven Favorite Neckties

Neckties that Obama Wore Three or Fewer Times

This week President Obama introduced two new potential members of his administration: Secretary of Commerce Nominee Gary Locke, and the proposed 2010 Federal Budget.

Obama chose a new neck tie for introducing Locke on Wednesday, one with alternating dark and light silver stripes. Since he is worried that public confidence might wane as he taps his third choice for Commerce Secretary, the President chose a tie that symbolizes wealth and says that the valedictocracy remains vigorous. Thursday’s budget announcement was accompanied by a “power” tie that the President has only worn once since taking office.