If all you care about is getting an A, then I'd base my paper on what you think his politics are. If he's a Dem, I'd write a paper about improving our infrastructure: roads, bridges. Use some emotional examples like the bridge in MN that collapsed. Bring up that a large portion of the jobs that were created in the last 8 years were in residential building construction and those jobs can be retooled. Use a lot of New Deal type language - giving jobs to the middle class, etc. Bring up infrastructure has been neglected for decades.
If he's an R, I'd write a paper on becoming a net exporter of energy. Bring up there's enough shale in the Green River Basin alone to last us 100 years. Talk about the vast reserves of coal we have and the simple process of liquefied coal and how that can be used for fuel. My first sentence would be "I'm going to tell you about a country with 5 times the amount of oil of Saudi Arabia: The US. And that's JUST the shale reserves." Don't forget natural gas, crude, solar, tidal, ocean hydrates, ect.
Tie the first into the economy by giving money from the bottom up. Tie the second by not only stopping the hundreds of billions leaving the shores of the US, but the possibility of having billions of dollars coming into the US when we are an energy exporter. If it was me, I would go with the second, but you know - most teachers these days are flaming liberals and that would just piss him off.
This is the most important though - regardless of which way you go write it as a challenge to the American people similar to JFK announcing we're going to the moon. Its gotta be big and everyone has to be a part of it.
Waterproof
