Obama and the future
I got to watch President Obama's speech live this morning (just after noon east coast time) by virtue of being home working on the rough drafts for the new tea blog posts.
It was an interesting speech, being called "Econ 101" by some pundits, but what struck me most was the radically different tone from the speeches that came from the previous administration. This President believes in some version of "scaring us straight". The previous President believed more in "encouragement is the solution" speeches, full of all the good stuff that was going on. An excellent example of this is the constant criticism of the media by the Bush administration that they weren't getting credit for how well things were going in Iraq, or enough coverage of how the surge was working. They were right, it was getting very little coverage, and it did work. The surge reduced violence and allowed us to get regions under control that had been war zones. The lack of coverage was seen as a lack of respect and encouragement, a key strategy for the Bush media machine, and probably a foundation of how President Bush wanted to run his government.
Obama sees things differently. He stood at the podium in Georgetown and told everyone it's not done getting worse. He told them millions more will lose their jobs and probably hundreds of thousands will lose their homes. He told the financial sector that piles of new regulation is on the way, and the he intends to break apart their systems for making money, or at least the ones that have been the most profitable in the last decade. (Did anyone else know that 40% of corporate profits came from these derivatives? I didn't. Anyone know of any verification for that?) He told all of us that the crushing weight of importing oil and skyrocketing health care could take more than a decade to even begin to control. In fact, I can't think of any positive news that he gave other than the vague "and we see some better movement in home sales and refinancing", which seems pretty slim pickings on the good news front if you ask me.
This administration clearly feels that the American public, and the world-wide media for that measure, need to hear the hard news. He felt a need to come on an directly address the pundits from all sides that want to criticize him. He even acknowledged that he agreed with much of the anger out there, commenting directly on how pissed he is as AIG. In interest of full disclosure, I tend to agree with what Obama is doing in general, though I am in the majority in feeling like I wish he would move faster and more decisively on my number one issue: health care. I think everyone feels like that right now, wishing that whichever national issue they feel is most critical (the wars, poverty, banks, corporations, taxes, deficit, etc..) that the government isn't moving fast enough or decisively enough. But regardless of how you feel about what has been done or is being done, the radical change in tone from the previous administration is stark in its contrast. Obama may be doing some of the same things Bush did, to the extreme frustration of many, but his tone and direction are clearly different. As someone that read about Reagan liking jellybeans as a small grade-school girl, Obama is the first president I've ever seen speak so strongly to the Americans. It's making an impression, you can be sure of that.
When I'm not watching politics on CNN in the middle of the afternoon, I'm up to my eyeballs in word processors, which is why if you're looking for me in the store over the next couple of weeks you may be a bit disappointed. I'm mostly home for the next 2 weeks while I work on a huge pile of website writing. L has gotten to the point where he's ready for me to start populating the database for the new website, and thus we have decided it needs a complete re-write. That means every tea, every FAQ, and every bit of text on our whole website needs to be taken out of its current database, cleaned up or deleted and re-written, and then formed into the new system. Oh, I've also got to add the 20 or so teas that aren't currently listed on the website at all, and don't forget integrating the pictures that were taken a couple weeks ago of all the teas currently in stock.
A sizable project by any measure, and on top of that I'm starting to create the rough outlines of a dozen or so tea blog entries so as soon as it's launched I've got some back work already to go. If you all have the time and/or energy to help with Teacup stuff, you can always post here or email me a list questions you have that you'd like to see me answer on the tea blog, or volunteer to be one of our beta testers for the new website once we are ready for that. We are currently aiming for a complete launch in the next 60 days, with beta testing happening in late May.
BTW, the store is still holding its own, up the same 28-34% that it's been over this time last year. We are still going to have a tight Q2, as the last of the move expenses and the costs of all that snow and down holiday sales need to finish being paid off. The goal at this point is to go though the always stressful Q3 revenue neutral, starting Q4 with the ability to positively grow though what I expect to be at least a marginally better holiday season in '09. I am also in the beginning stages of talking to "those in charge" about what could be our first expansion store. So, yah, there's a bit of stress in my life, to be sure.
Needless to say, at least several weeks here at home writing is in my near future, with a side note to dealing with the gargantuan mountain of laundry being gone for 2 weeks generated, finding my kitchen sink and counters, sticking with my new exercise regime of kick boxing, and helping L manage life while fighting round 5 of this nasty cold. (I made him call the Doc for antibiotics yesterday. Hopefully that helps.) I hope life will return to some version of normal after my trip it Vegas to teach at the Expo the first weekend in May. It's important to have hopes I think, no matter how unreasonable. :)
It was an interesting speech, being called "Econ 101" by some pundits, but what struck me most was the radically different tone from the speeches that came from the previous administration. This President believes in some version of "scaring us straight". The previous President believed more in "encouragement is the solution" speeches, full of all the good stuff that was going on. An excellent example of this is the constant criticism of the media by the Bush administration that they weren't getting credit for how well things were going in Iraq, or enough coverage of how the surge was working. They were right, it was getting very little coverage, and it did work. The surge reduced violence and allowed us to get regions under control that had been war zones. The lack of coverage was seen as a lack of respect and encouragement, a key strategy for the Bush media machine, and probably a foundation of how President Bush wanted to run his government.
Obama sees things differently. He stood at the podium in Georgetown and told everyone it's not done getting worse. He told them millions more will lose their jobs and probably hundreds of thousands will lose their homes. He told the financial sector that piles of new regulation is on the way, and the he intends to break apart their systems for making money, or at least the ones that have been the most profitable in the last decade. (Did anyone else know that 40% of corporate profits came from these derivatives? I didn't. Anyone know of any verification for that?) He told all of us that the crushing weight of importing oil and skyrocketing health care could take more than a decade to even begin to control. In fact, I can't think of any positive news that he gave other than the vague "and we see some better movement in home sales and refinancing", which seems pretty slim pickings on the good news front if you ask me.
This administration clearly feels that the American public, and the world-wide media for that measure, need to hear the hard news. He felt a need to come on an directly address the pundits from all sides that want to criticize him. He even acknowledged that he agreed with much of the anger out there, commenting directly on how pissed he is as AIG. In interest of full disclosure, I tend to agree with what Obama is doing in general, though I am in the majority in feeling like I wish he would move faster and more decisively on my number one issue: health care. I think everyone feels like that right now, wishing that whichever national issue they feel is most critical (the wars, poverty, banks, corporations, taxes, deficit, etc..) that the government isn't moving fast enough or decisively enough. But regardless of how you feel about what has been done or is being done, the radical change in tone from the previous administration is stark in its contrast. Obama may be doing some of the same things Bush did, to the extreme frustration of many, but his tone and direction are clearly different. As someone that read about Reagan liking jellybeans as a small grade-school girl, Obama is the first president I've ever seen speak so strongly to the Americans. It's making an impression, you can be sure of that.
When I'm not watching politics on CNN in the middle of the afternoon, I'm up to my eyeballs in word processors, which is why if you're looking for me in the store over the next couple of weeks you may be a bit disappointed. I'm mostly home for the next 2 weeks while I work on a huge pile of website writing. L has gotten to the point where he's ready for me to start populating the database for the new website, and thus we have decided it needs a complete re-write. That means every tea, every FAQ, and every bit of text on our whole website needs to be taken out of its current database, cleaned up or deleted and re-written, and then formed into the new system. Oh, I've also got to add the 20 or so teas that aren't currently listed on the website at all, and don't forget integrating the pictures that were taken a couple weeks ago of all the teas currently in stock.
A sizable project by any measure, and on top of that I'm starting to create the rough outlines of a dozen or so tea blog entries so as soon as it's launched I've got some back work already to go. If you all have the time and/or energy to help with Teacup stuff, you can always post here or email me a list questions you have that you'd like to see me answer on the tea blog, or volunteer to be one of our beta testers for the new website once we are ready for that. We are currently aiming for a complete launch in the next 60 days, with beta testing happening in late May.
BTW, the store is still holding its own, up the same 28-34% that it's been over this time last year. We are still going to have a tight Q2, as the last of the move expenses and the costs of all that snow and down holiday sales need to finish being paid off. The goal at this point is to go though the always stressful Q3 revenue neutral, starting Q4 with the ability to positively grow though what I expect to be at least a marginally better holiday season in '09. I am also in the beginning stages of talking to "those in charge" about what could be our first expansion store. So, yah, there's a bit of stress in my life, to be sure.
Needless to say, at least several weeks here at home writing is in my near future, with a side note to dealing with the gargantuan mountain of laundry being gone for 2 weeks generated, finding my kitchen sink and counters, sticking with my new exercise regime of kick boxing, and helping L manage life while fighting round 5 of this nasty cold. (I made him call the Doc for antibiotics yesterday. Hopefully that helps.) I hope life will return to some version of normal after my trip it Vegas to teach at the Expo the first weekend in May. It's important to have hopes I think, no matter how unreasonable. :)