What A Week!

Wow, what a week. State of the Union, GOP debate and off to Florida. First up, State of the Union. It amazed me as the United States is drowning in a sea of debt and Obama downplayed it. He quoted Lincoln on the size of government out of one side of his mouth and announced out of the other side his intentions of creating a number of new commissions, which, reading between the lines, says what else but more government jobs!

But I wasn¹t surprised. That¹s the only kind he can create, certainly not private sector jobs. But, of course, there¹s always Solyndra! What did he say in his one hour speech? Nothing!

Frankly, in my opinion, it was the worst speech he¹s ever given!!! Maybe the teleprompter was broken. So what Obama offered the American people Tuesday night was just more of his same rhetoric. I have to agree 100% with columnist and commentator Charles Krauthammer when he summed up the State of the Union Address: ³If the Republicans can¹t beat that in November, they should try another line of work.²

On to the Thursday night GOP debate held in Jacksonville, FL. It was the last one before the Florida primary on January 31, and the most important debate to date. In my opinion, each candidate held their own, but clearly, Mitt Romney pulled out ahead and the polls show it. Right now he¹s 11 to 15% in the lead. But I also have to say I was impressed with Rick Santorum who might have gotten a little bounce. Newt Gingrich tried to get Romney in a one on one a number of times, but Romney quickly came around his attacks and came out the winner. So how will this all play out in Florida? I¹m calling it for Mitt Romney. In my opinion, in the end, he¹s the one that can beat Barack Obama easily because of his private sector experience (25 years) of job creation as his tax returns proved. Ron Paul is skipping Florida to move on but is certainly still in the race, and I might add very popular with the under 30 population. Rick Santorum, at presstime, is at the bedside of his seriously ill three-year-old daughter, so there is a question of whether he¹ll be in Florida on Tuesday. Newt Gingrich is still Newt Gingrich, whose baggage is so bad I don¹t see how he can do anything but hurt the party by staying in. He was the first Speaker of the House in American history to ever resign with an approval rating of 18%. It was a head lobbyist that supported him on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that started the housing bubble. He was hired by the chief lobbyist of Freddie Mac as historian. His firm was being paid $25,000 a week while the people in Florida were the hardest hit with foreclosures. Newt¹s firm made $1.7 million over six years from Freddie Mac. He paid a hefty fine for corruption. And let¹s not forget Newt was a player, and as bad as most think major media is, Newt¹s still up there with John Edwards, Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton. If you can¹t control your personal life, how can you control the House and Senate. One mistake is one thing, but Newt¹s list goes on and on and on. How will all this play out in Florida, a state that¹s still shaken by foreclosures, upside down loans for those that chose to hang on, an unemployment rate of 9.9% and real unemployment at 18%. Florida, unfortunately, is no longer the golden state for many.

On a closing note, it has come to my attention that General David Petraeus retired in August and Barack Obama did not attend the ceremony. Petraeus closed his phenomenal 37-year Army career at Fort Myer in Arlington. Service members from every branch were present, and flags from every state fluttered in the breeze. Obama should have been there to look him in the eye and say Thank You.

On another subject, Obama promised jobs in the U.S. by improving our infrastructure ­ again, our tax dollars at work ­ building U.S. bridges and roads. The problem is they¹re being built by Chinese firms. This was reported first in September. by ABC News which is usually a liberal network. Then there¹s the Brazil story. Brazilian plane maker Embraer will sell its A-29 Super Tucano aircraft to the U.S. Air Force as well as ground training devices to support training, maintenance and supply requirements for a total cost of $355 million for 20 aircraft.

Final thought: So much for Obama¹s promise for American jobs. Shocking!

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