This week, President Obama has taken to the road to promote his jobs legislation and many are saying that the American people are seeing a side of the president that we haven't seen since he ran for office. The president will be in Virginia later this morning trying to fire up crowds with his new catchphrase "Pass this bill."

So is Obama finally connecting with the average American again?

Today on American Morning, Michael Maslansky, CEO of Maslansky Luntz + Partners, a corporate and public affairs market research firm that specializes in language and messaging, discusses the president's jobs strategy and compares it with that of GOP candidates like Rick Perry.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently came out with a new book, "This Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How  We Can Come Back."

Within the book, Friedman outlines four great challenges facing the U.S., globalization, the revolution in information technology, chronic deficits, and a pattern of excessive energy consumption.

Describing himself as a "frustrated optimist," Friedman spends much of the book discussing the hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill, describing Washington as being systemically paralyzed. He argues that the U.S. needs a "shock to the system" to change this system, specifically, a third party candidate.

Today on American Morning, Friedman joins Ali Velshi to place his book in context with the jobs crisis and to weigh in on what the country needs right now, both in leadership style and in legislative substance.