Tweeting the President

I have always said that grassroots politics and lobbying are only accomplished by professionals in the field and folks without day jobs. Now, the latter part is not necessarily true given the number of people who like to volunteer for their cause, but unfortunately for me, fourteen to eighteen hours a day six and sometimes seven days a week did not accommodate my desire to support the cause. Tomorrow, however, courtesy of my recent surgery forcing me to take a leave of absence from the daily grind (and enjoy naps in the afternoon to aid in my recovery), I found myself with a morning in North Carolina with nothing to do but watch bad television or read or take up the invitation I received from the White House to tweet from the Jamestown, NC stop on the American Jobs Act bus tour led by President Obama. So tomorrow morning, I will be taking a detour on my way home from dropping my son off at school to head a little farther east to capture the words and images of our  44th president.

Now to be fair, I must point out that I am a registered Republican and have been a staunch conservative most of my life. I was actually surprised to receive the invitation, but I want to believe he desires a balanced audience. And as such, I promise to give a balanced #whtweetup of the President's message to North Carolina and to the country at large. You can follow me @twubbell.

In 1985, I had the privilege of attending a speech by then President Reagan at Reynolds Coliseum on the campus of NCSU. The thrill of seeing a president of the United States in person was one of the highlights of my college days. I am anticipating a similar feeling tomorrow, for though I may not see eye-to-eye with him on many political issues in the end he is the leader of the most powerful and respected country in the world and he's our president.

I have skimmed over The American Jobs Act being promoted by the President and the Democratic members of the Senate and House of Representatives, and I will say that the sections on small business tax reform are right on target. For those of you who have shared my story here and in my book, you know the trials I and my family faced during the first decade of this new century because these types of reforms were not in place. Same goes for a decent health care policy and improvements to the unemployment system. We have to have some kind of change to both motivate our people in the short run and serve the well-being of our country in the long run.

Come back tomorrow night for a recap of the day's detour. Later this week I will have a complete after event blog posting with photos (I hope).

Cheers!

- Ken