Contrary to popular legend, Herbert Hoover, the US presidential candidate and eventual winner in 1928, probably never promised the electorate "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage."
But, Starwood's Element Hotels brand should immediately confer with President Obama because, in its emphasis on sustainability and green good deeds, the hotel company has a potential platform plank which would ensure the president's reelection.
The pledge?
A pedal-powered generator for every hotel gym rat.
You read it here first.
With the US economy improving and the private sector starting to add jobs to payrolls, the only thing that can get in the way of another four years of Obama are rising gasoline prices and the prospect that Israel could bomb Iran's developing nuclear capabilities, thus leading to an even greater spike in oil prices.
(Of course, Starwood could alternately turn to the eventual Republican nominee to fuel his presidential prospects.)
But, Element Hotels indeed has the answer to the energy crisis.
The hotel brand has unveiled a pilot program to install pedal-powered generators on stationary bikes in its fitness centers. The first property to get the generators was the newly opened Element Miami International Airport.
With the generators in place on the stationary bikes, the guests can pedal away, hook up their personal electronic devices, and put a charge into them.
Obviously, if hotel guests in fitness centers around the US and the globe were given these devices at check-in, then enough clean electricity would be generated to make all thoughts of escalating oil prices and even global warming just so yesteryear.
In the demonstration of the pedal-powered generators the other day, the bikers powered up laptops and flat-screen TVs, providing enough juice to watch all those TV commercials about the Republican presidential primaries.
It's not a chicken in every pot, but it could lead to prosperity and green living.