Guest Blog by Rep. Martin Heinrich: My First Visit to the White House

We're pleased to have a guest blog by U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich, who serves New Mexico's First Congressional District.

Today was my first visit to the White House, ever. I was humbled and awed to see this architectural testament to American Democracy up close and personal. While it looks bigger on TV, the White House is no less exciting in person, and it is even more exciting to be there and get an audience with the President. When I arrived I looked around for Martin Sheen and Allison Janney from “The West Wing,” but they were nowhere to be seen. Instead of Toby and Josh, I shook hands with David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel (oh yeah, and President Barack Obama). This was the real deal.

There is no doubt that our nation faces economic challenges of a caliber we have not faced since the Great Depression. Just as those who lived through the Depression were reassured by FDR’s steady presence, I am reassured to have a strong, thoughtful President in the White House during these trying times. He proved to me again today that he is truly an exceptional leader. He was on message from minute one, fielding questions from some of the most influential Democrats on everything from “Smart Grids” to reforming the health care system, all the while clearly understanding the policy and substance without ever losing his clarity of message and purpose.

His core message was that we WILL grow our economy AND balance our budget once again, but it will be based on solid fundamentals, not credit card-financed consumer spending or an overheated housing market. Those fundamentals include leading the world on clean energy innovation while reforming healthcare and education. This was exactly the same message he delivered so effectively at his first joint session of Congress a couple weeks ago. It is also the RIGHT formula to grow our way to a healthier, greener, more innovative economy that produces quality jobs in places like New Mexico.

I’ll be the first to admit that neither I, nor the Democratic Congress, nor President Barack Obama will get it right 100 percent of the time. We’re all human and we’ll make mistakes. But we WILL keep working hard to turn this economy around and to advance the nation that we all love. You won’t hear defeatism from us, no wishing failure on our adversaries like you hear from Rush Limbaugh and others. There is simply too much at stake for this nation. The time for naked partisanship has passed. We’re all Americans and our nation expects us to lead. We aim to deliver that sort of leadership. And with committed voters and activists, I know that together we can overcome any obstacle.

This is a guest blog by Rep. Martin Heinrich. To submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the page.