Television host and best-selling author Suze Orman brought her oversized personality to the National Press Club Thursday to promote both a cause and a product. The cause was poverty in America, while the product was Orman’s new “Approved Card,” a prepaid debit card that will help consumers, especially the poor, build credit.
Orman, more known for her financial advice than her politically-tinged rhetoric, explained how she reconciled the two Suzes. “You know, I don’t see that as two different Suze Ormans,” she said. “On TV I can’t sit up there and preach, but I’m kind of a preacher, I’m kind of a preacher because I believe in what I say, TV isn’t a platform to do that,” she continued.
She reminded the audience of her own roots — growing up on the South Side of Chicago — and of the demographic that she appeals to — those who are in dire need of financial advice. “You may look at me now as a wealthy woman, and I am, but I wasn’t always wealthy, my mom was a secretary, she sold Avon, I myself was a waitress for seven years until I was 30 years of age, making $400 a month,” she said. “I never thought I would be anything so why should I even try, so I lived in that poverty mentality most of my life until now.”
And while they aren’t always the most articulate bunch, Orman said she supported the Occupy movement. “I like the Occupy movement and I think it’s very, very important that people hear what they have to say,” she said. “Do I wish they had a little bit more direction?…Of course I do…but I’m not leading that movement.”
Orman appeared alongside PBS’s Tavis Smiley and Princeton’s Cornel West, in advance of Thursday night’s panel discussion on poverty at the George Washington University.
