What's your suit?

What's your strongest suit? No, I'm not talking about the kind of clothes you'd wear to an interview or a wedding; I'm referring to your greatest talent.

In an interview, you want people to recognize what your strongest suit is, and not only that you're wearing your best suit. When we talk about talent, we can only say "strong/strongest suit". If you are talking about your clothes, you would not use "strong suit", unless you're wearing a suit of armour.

The US presidential candidates have only a few more weeks to show people their "strong suits". Unfortunately for McCain, he's already demonstrated what this isn't: the economy.

As the US economy dips and dives, the last thing the people want is a president who admits in public that he's not very good at dealing with such issues. In the past, he has actually said "the economy is not my strong suit".

To prove this, on 15 September, the very day that the Lehman Brothers was collapsing, McCain called the economy "strong". A few days later he acknowledged that the economy was in "total crisis".

His campaign advisers must have realized that his comments really could harm his chances of wining the election. They've now released a new video to convince people that McCain does know what he's talking about when it comes to the economy.

Here's the text from the advertisement:

“You, the American workers, are the best in the world. But your economic security has been put at risk by the greed of Wall Street. That’s unacceptable. My opponent’s only solutions are talk and taxes. I’ll reform Wall Street and fix Washington. I’ve taken on tougher guys than this before.” Announcer’s voice: “Change is coming. John McCain.”

As usual, McCain uses the opportunity to refer to his military experience, the "tough guys" being the ones in Vietnam. But can his experience really help him this time round? The ad could backfire, however, as some voters may feel it simply shows that McCain's strongest suit is in fact a bullet-proof one, and not the economy.

Wise Words: strongest suit

Your "strongest suit" is something that you are very good at. Make sure people know what it is.

You can also use this expression to criticize someone, as in "patience is not his strongest suit".

Do you know what yours is?