The Obamas: America’s First Fashion Conscious First Family?

Despite the accolades and approvals of every top fashionista in the U.S. and the rest of the world, are the Obamas the first true fashion conscious first family that has ever occupied the White House?

By: Ringo Bones

Even though the late former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy managed to get myriads of fashion praises during her time, as of late, it seems like the Obamas are getting their own fashion accolades from fashionistas, fashion pundits and fashion bloggers on U.S. soil and the rest of the world during the run-up to the 2013 Presidential Inauguration back in January 21, 2013. Some of them even praised President Obama’s color-coordinated tie that seems to symbiotically - fashion wise – coordinated seamlessly with the First Lady Michele Obama’s evening dress and the kids. It seems as if the current first family can’t ever commit a fashion faux pas.

Well, the Clintons – together with First Lady Hillary and Chelsea Clinton seems to have never committed their own share of fashion faux pas that one wonders if there’s a branch of the Secret Service in charge of supervising the First Family’s proper fashion sense. I wonder if they previously worked with the fashion police. Well, at least if the Obama’s ever committed a fashion faux pas during the Inauguration, the public’s attention had been diverted to Beoncé’s alleged lip-syncing of America’s national anthem. 

President Barack Obama: Latest U.S. Presidential Superlative?

Even if he had lost to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, did you know that President Barack Obama can still achieve some U.S. Presidential firsts and superlatives?

By: Ringo Bones

Aside from the fact that U.S. President Barack Obama is America’s first African-American president ever elected – whether he won or lost the 2012 US Presidential Elections to his opponent, former governor of the state of Massachusetts Mitt Romney – Obama did managed to earn other well-deserved first and other superlatives in the U.S. Presidency. If he failed to become reelected, President Obama could have become the second youngest U.S. ex president at 51. Though the title of youngest U.S. ex president belongs to Theodore Roosevelt who was only 50 years of age when he finished serving his two terms in office.

Fortunately, President Obama got reelected, and with this, managed to earn other U.S. Presidential firsts and superlatives. Given that the last two U.S. presidents where two-termers – i.e. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – the last time America got a trio of two-term presidents was back during the terms of Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. And during the time when Thomas Jefferson was elected President of the United States of America back in 1801, the country was only 25 years old! And by the end of the term of this first trio of two-term U.S. Presidents, almost all of the veterans of the American Revolutionary Wars probably lived long enough to witness that particularly rare political event.

Another first to have happened in the U.S. political landscape of President Obama’s reelection is that America now has 20 women senators – the most in any other time in America’s political history. Given that President Obama is the first black / African-American U.S. president to be elected in office, is his administration paving the way for other ethnicities / genders to be another notch closer to be voted into the U.S. presidency? Who knows, historians could probably write that President Barack Obama was the one who paved for women to be elected into the U.S. presidency. Paging Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren! 

The Fiscal Cliff Deal: Deferment Of The Inevitable?

Even despite the seemingly insurmountable partisan divide, a new short-term deal averting the Fiscal Cliff had been reached, but is this just deferring the inevitable?

By: Ringo Bones

From a political standpoint, the signing of a new short-term deal – i.e. “The Fiscal Cliff Deal” – averting the supposedly inevitably looming Fiscal Cliff seems like the proverbial kicking of the can down the road. Even though the newly reached short-term deal on the Fiscal Cliff have created a rather bullish and euphoric market rally back in Wednesday, January 2, 2013, it has since inevitably petered out. And while the up to the last second partisan brinkmanship of the U.S. Republican Party controlled House of Representatives have some wonder whether “Dictator of the House Boehner” should really get his well-deserved defenestration off the Fiscal Cliff, at least America’s middle and lower income families won’t be facing an increased tax burden – for now. But the question now is, is the new Fiscal Cliff Deal nothing more than a deferment of another inevitable partisan showdown on Capitol Hill during the next two months?

Even though the U.S. government will reach the 16.4-trillion U.S. dollar Debt Ceiling in a few weeks time, by March 2013, there will be another partisan Congressional showdown over the raising of the Debt Ceiling and the negotiation on the U.S. Republican Party’s proposed unreasonably steep Spending Cuts on President Obama’s socio-economic safety net programs. Given that President Obama is unlikely to have a repeat of the very heated reaching across the partisan divide type of negotiations that the GOP controlled Congress played last-second brinkmanship in establishing the Fiscal Cliff Deal, a deadlock on the Debt Ceiling and Spending Cuts in a few months’ time could spook the global markets yet again.

As both the Debt Ceiling and Spending Cuts still need Congressional approval, the U.S. Republican Party had since become clueless on what initiated the “Clinton Era Economic Expansion” of the latter half of the 1990s in the first place. Given that the very generous Bush era tax cuts on America’s richest 1% have yet to trickle down, it seems like a suicidal act of fiscal insanity for the Republican controlled Congress to extend it further. Even though Republicans tend to look down on new immigrants, it was the venture capital investment of naturalized Balkan conflict era refugees / émigrés that funded the internet / dot com boom of the mid 1990s despite capital gains taxes being 30% higher during much of President Clinton’s term compared to that during the first term of President Obama.