Can't Do It

I tried to watch the debate last night and could not make it more than thirty  minutes. Why? The verbal diarrhea that came out of their mouths. They all have the same game plan and that is to bash Obama making it sound that if he is re-elected this country will collapse. I guess they have not been keeping up with any poles but their own. Obama has a 50% approval rating. Consider the state of the economy I would say that ain't bad. The question was polled asking who has the most faith in getting this country back on track. The Republicans Congress had a palsy 10%. What does that tell you? It tells the the public is sick and tired of everything the President has tried to get passed the GOP, ruled by the crybaby John Boehner, has said the only word they seem to know, and that is NO! They have some sense because the last bill that involved continuing the tax break and unemployment for millions of Americans still out of work and they caved and said yes. I am sure it was the pressure from people like you and me. The unemployment rate is steady going down. Millions of jobs are coming back home thanks to Obama's tax break to entice those to come home. I think the majority of the GOP has selective amnesia. They have forgotten exactly the mess 8 years of a Republican president, a war we had no business being involved in, another war that is making our country hated even more, a deficit larger than any president has ever inherited, should I go on? Those that put the GOP back in power in the House of Representatives are getting what they deserved. The bad thing is that we all, as Americans, suffer. Now, the GOP has put together a group of clowns that are going to try and beat Obama in November. The established Republicans don't even believe in the 4 that are battling it out, now. Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck, offered Newt one million dollars to drop out of the race. What does that tell you. The longer they vilify each other is making Obama that much more appealing. The mess that Obama was left would take 12 years to fix and the Romney's and the Santorum's think they could do it in one year. That tells me how out of touch they really are with the problems facing America, today. It has been proven that Romney will say anything as my two previous videos showed. There is only one person that can get us back the the fiscal giants we were during the 90's. Newt takes the credit but it was Clinton that actually made it happen. If you want to keep getting poorer then vote for the Big Business of the GOP. If you want to have a chance at making a decent living for yourself and hope for your grandkids then stick with Obama. He is our only chance.                     theblogmeister

Payroll Tax Cut Cave By Republicans

Fox News Proves Sarah Palin Is Dumber Than Bush

I'm Home!

It has been an awful journey these past couple of days. I tried to do some things to make my blog reader friendly and the next thing you know I did not recognize my own blog. I was frantic thinking I had ruined the familiarity of my blog. It was like I moved to another country and did not recognize anything. After about three hours I got it back.
  I have spent the last several days sick from flu-like symptoms. I'm not really sure what it was but it kicked my rear end.
  Have you been keeping up with the GOP? Where the hell did Santorum come from. I think he has emerged as the best anti-Romney, not necessarily the best of the field. Paul is just wasting his money staying in the race. He is pulling votes from someone. The elite GOP wants all four to stay in the race to ensure that Romney will not get the nomination. After all this Republican bashing I do not think it will matter who is the GOP nominee because, as I predicted, the economy is on the rise, people are going back to work, the opinion of Obama has increased to the point that he will win another term. Romney's "I don't care about the poor" comment cost him, dearly. Gingrich's idea of a moon colony when we can't find our own ass has him sounding like a complete fool. Calista did not help him, either. Someone asked her something like, 'How can you help your husband win Georgia.' She came out of left field. 'Well, I know that Newt does not have a secretary better than John.' I guess she is making sure history will not repeat itself. This has been one of the craziest elections I have ever witnessed. The funny thing about the GOP is they claim that the Dems are trying to have government rule everyday life. When just today, the legislature in Virginia voted on a bill proposed by a Republican stating that life begins at conception and that embryos' have the same rights as you and I. The Republican led legislative body passed it and sent it to the governor's desk. It tells me that the GOP is trying damn hard to get into your bedroom. The governor has not decided if he will sign the bill into law. What a joke! Next they will be making it a law that it would be illegal to flush semen. Hey, those one-eyed tadpoles have the same rights as you and I. I don't want to ever hear that the Democrats are the party of Big government. The GOP want the embryo to have rights. You don't know if it is fertile or not, but it can sure enough rally to protest. What is next? Protection of the zygote? It is a cell produced by the union of two gametes. Should we not afford the gametes equal protection as the embryo? Where do you stop? Republicans have got it all wrong. 'When God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.' Does that have no meaning, whatsoever? The pro-life fanatics will kill to keep from aborting a baby, not an embryo. Why do they call themselves pro-life, anyway. Hey, let's go blow up this abortion clinic and kill a few innocent people to protect a fetus, not a baby. Pro-life my ass. Afew angry letters with a catchy title will scramble a Re publican's brain. Not unless you happen to be Romney. I am pro-life and always have been except when I was pro-choice as governor of Massachusetts, now I am pro, wait a minute, who are you with? MADD. Yes, as I was saying I do not believe that a man should sit at a bar, get hammered, and take his girlfriend to any abortion clinic without having a licensed designated driver to be there if something goes wrong. Someone should be able to call 911. Romney is an 'outsider' because he has never been elected to anything besides, ' the one most likely to change his mind a half dozen times.' All he will do is blow several tens of millions of dollars and ask, 'why the hell did I do that?'

It is Time to Change

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 My passion is allowing America to rebuild. The only way to do that? Get your credit score where it needs to be. It is not hard. We have programs that will guide you and when you do get that high number everybody dreams about. Don't forget to tell them how you did it. Together, we can have America on her feet, again. I want to take this time to welcome home our soldiers and as soon as we get the men out of Afghanistan, you bet , we will have a ticker tape parade through the canyon of Champions. Cause that is what you all are; CHAMPIONS.      theblogmeister

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Don't Have a Clue. Yeah, Right!

    Aiming tax increases at millionaires and companies that ship jobs abroad may help frame the fairness theme of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, but it's a plan that stands virtually no chance of passing Congress. Republicans have enough votes in the GOP-run House, and almost certainly in the Democratic-controlled Senate, to kill Obama's proposals. They say his ideas would discourage investment and job creation and further hurt an already ailing economy.
"He's got to know that none of those things he proposed really have much of a chance of going through both houses of Congress," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "I don't think he's intending on passing any laws this year," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "He's in a campaign. That was his re-election speech." The GOP's dismissiveness hardly matters to Obama and his Democratic allies.
After last year's hyper-partisanship bogged down routine business like financing the government and paying its debts, few expect much to move through Congress before November's election anyway — especially not tax hikes that Republicans solidly reject. "Even if there is little prospect of getting Republicans to agree with these proposals, they're important reference points for the public in identifying Obama as someone who's on their side," said Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin. Obama offered his plans, with scant detail, in Tuesday's State of the Union address. He used the word "fair" seven times to describe tax increases aimed at groups the Occupy movement has branded as the "one percent" of Americans who are doing extremely well while the rest of society struggles. The president proposed ending tax breaks for U.S. companies moving jobs or profits to foreign countries and creating a minimum tax on their overseas profits. He also suggested new tax breaks for businesses that move jobs back to the U.S., for domestic manufacturing and for companies that invest in towns that have suffered major job losses. Getting most attention was his plan to tax incomes above $1 million annually at a rate of at least 30 percent. That's a sharp and convenient contrast with the 15 percent tax rate enjoyed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, who earned about $21 million each of the past two years. The proposals quickly became fodder for the GOP presidential contenders. Romney said the next day on CNBC's "Kudlow Report" that Obama's plan was "designed to come at me if I'm the nominee," and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said during last Thursday's presidential debate, "His proposal on taxes would make the economy worse." Democrats immediately made clear that there will be Senate votes this year on the subject. New York Sen. Charles Schumer, part of the Senate Democratic leadership, said he was relishing a push on "some kind of Romney rule, I mean Buffett rule." Obama has embraced a Buffett rule, named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has cited the inequity of laws that let him pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. Such proposals, along with any efforts to deny tax breaks to U.S. companies that outsource jobs and profits, would never get the 60 votes they would need to prevail in the Senate this year, let alone win approval from the GOP-run House. If the president has proposals that will help create jobs, we'll take a look," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "But tax hikes on small businesses will make it even harder for them to invest and grow." Republicans say boosting taxes on millionaires would hurt many of the people who run small businesses and create jobs, a claim Democrats call exaggerated. The GOP and business groups also marshal their own fairness argument, calling it unjust and impractical to raise taxes on companies that set up operations overseas.
"They locate their facilities to be close to the customer," said Dorothy Coleman, vice president for tax policy for the National Association of Manufacturers. "That's a big concern for us, targeting multinational companies as if there is something wrong with doing business overseas." Democrats challenge that argument as well, saying many pharmaceutical and high technology companies that set up shop abroad are drawn by lower labor costs and taxes and still sell the bulk of their products in the U.S. Those disputes underscore a political climate so difficult that neither the House nor Senate seem likely to even try advancing pre-election legislation that each party calls their top tax priority: overhauling and simplifying the tax code. Even so, Obama's tax proposals can also be read as an opening gambit in what looms as a titanic partisan struggle to be waged after the November elections, perhaps in a lame duck session of Congress in December. Next January, broad tax cuts will expire that were enacted under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and were temporarily renewed by Obama and Congress in 2010. At the same time, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts will kick in unless lawmakers vote otherwise.
  Congress will also need to renew the government's authority to borrow money. And action will be needed on a package of expiring smaller tax cuts, mostly for businesses, and on preventing the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at the wealthy, from trapping middle- and upper-middle-income families as well

What Does the Future Hold for Veterans?

Many veteran service representatives are committed to supporting and preserving our status as the best military in the world. As the President prepares his final budget for Congress, they will continue to monitor the impact these budget decisions will have on service members’ and veterans’ long-term health and financial stability. In the coming weeks, there is hope the White House and Department of Defense will reach out to  members and their families for feedback and insight. Our troops are taught never to leave anyone behind. That ethos is true in combat and America needs to uphold it here at home.”
  The Department of Defense announced today that it will request $525 billion in funding for the Fiscal Year 2013. However, DoD is required to reduce $487 billion in planned spending over the next 10 years. To achieve this objective, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta addressed several defense priorities that could impact the sefvice rep community including: Force reduction-- DoD plans to reduce the size of the active Army from a post-9/11 peace of about 570,000 in 2010 to 490,000. The Army plans to remove at least eight Brigade Combat Teams from its existing structure. DoD will reduce the active Marine Corps from a peak of roughly 202,000 to 182,000. In addition, the President will request that Congress authorize use of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process to further reduce costs.
Military Pay-- Instead of reducing military pay, DoD will allow full pay raises in 2013 and 2014 to keep pace with increases in private sector pay. DoD will limit pay raises beginning in 2015 to achieve cost savings.
Wounded Warriors, Families and Transitioning Vets-- The DoD budget plan recommends sustaining key support programs while reforming and reorganizing others to respond to the needs of troops of their families including:
Wounded Warriors – Provide extra funding for the base and OCO budgets to enhance the Integrated Disability Evaluation System.
Transition Assistance - Reform the Transition Assistance Program and transition process for all service members through a collaborative DoD-VA initiative that improves career opportunities and readiness focusing on education, technical training, job placement and entrepreneurship preparation.
Family Support - Sustain, expand or improve effective programs for non-clinical counselors, marriage support, new patient support, and stress-reducing recreation for returning troops.
Psychological Health - Sustain effective programs that address Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Reserve Component Support - DoD’s Yellow Ribbon Integration Program, which provides services and referrals to reservists guardsmen, their families, and their employers through each state of the mobilization cycle.
DoD Schools - facilities being restored and modernized.
Health Care--  DoD indicates changes in the budget will not affect active duty personnel or their families. Medically retired and survivors of those who died on active duty are exempt from health care changes. Working-age retirees under the age of 65 who are still likely to be employed in the civilian sector will feel the most impact. Proposed changes include: Increasing and adding new enrollment fees for retirees under age 65 in the TRICARE program, using a tiered approach based on retired pay that requires senior-grade retirees to pay more and junior-grade retirees less. Establishing a new enrollment fee for the TRICARE-for-Life program for retirees 65 and older using a tiered approach.
Increasing pharmacy co-pays to incentivize use of generics and mail order.
Retirement-- DoD will ask Congress to establish a commission with BRAC-like authority to conduct a comprehensive review of military retirement in the context of total military compensation. To protect the retirement benefits of those who currently serve, the commission would assess grandfathering benefits, so reforms only impact future recruits. Contact Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America for additional details.                                                               theblogmeister

So Much Noise

  Every time I turn on my computer I see the verbal battles between Republicans that are trying to win their party's nomination to take on Barrack Obama come November. What is so unbelievable to me is how the GOP is attacking each other. I have never seen it this bad. Then again, I have never seen anyone like the four that are left to do battle. It seems the normal actions are to dig up trash, call each other a liar, and generally behave like they do not have a clue what it is doing to their party. Do you wonder why there are not that many in Congress that openly say what nominee they are behind? There mind is on trying their damndest to make The President look bad. They will go to any lengths to do so. What is especially confusing to me is when the Republicans vote against ideas that they at one time were all for. As soon as the President says he will agree to their plans it becomes automatic; vote no! The people are not stupid. There was a time that I agreed with some GOP ideas until I researched what exactly is going on in Washington. The GOP is so screwed up that they will lose the majority in the House. Speaker Boehner will lose his seat next to Joe Biden because the public is not stupid. When you have two of the richest men in America say that they need to pay their fair share of taxes and the vote comes up to tax the wealthiest 2% the Republicans vote no. Do they not realize what their doing is political suicide? Romney has his money in off-shore accounts and if he wins the nomination Barrack Obama will eat him alive in a debate. It will not be pretty, at all. The one thing Obama has is a gift of gab. He is a smooth talker and Romney's fighting with Newt and Santorum, Paul when they let him, is child's play compared to what Obama will do to either of them. Newt was leading the charge to impeach Clinton for getting a little oral sex at the same time he was banging the perfect haired aide who is now his wife. Newt got pissed because John King opened the debate with a question regarding his character and exploded. It was a fair question John King just sat their and let him rant. I bet if it had been Wolf, Newt would have been made to look like a dirty old man. The money that is being poured into Florida is why Santorum will not do good. Paul is not even in Florida, he knows that he does not have the cabbage to compete with those Super PAC's. So, he is up in Maine spreading his message about no government, not less government. Paul as President would be a dangerous event. I hope the young people of this great country will not let his ideas of Constitutionism blind them to the fact that he is dangerous. I will be glad after Florida votes and Romney gets all the delegates so we can start having debates with someone that is a master at debating and the constitution; Barrack Obama.        theblogmeister

The Party of No!

This is the reason Congress is always in gridlock and cannot get anything done.
Republicans would have Americans believe there is a socialistic war in American politics as if the social programs of public schools, police and fire departments, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and programs for the less fortunate are anti-American and anti-Christian. On the other hand Republicans and their fellow teabaggers lack the principles or any constructive ideas to move America forward. Their political arrogance of ‘NO’ is couched as “We’re doing this for you” and is the bastion of hypocrisy as the Republican Party was the genesis for the economic collapse in the U.S .Cases in Point: President Obama proposed a bipartisan fiscal commission, a panel of Democrats and Republicans who would hammer out concrete deficit reduction proposals over the medium and long-term, an idea that had strong bipartisan support and was initially co-sponsored by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-ND, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, the committee’s top-ranking Republican and had a lot of Republican cosponsors. After the President endorsed this idea, all of a sudden, Republicans started to think of it as a bad idea. Six Republican senators who originally cosponsored forming a deficit commission voted against it once President Obama signed up for the idea. Sam Brownback, Mike Crapo, John Ensign, Kay Bailey Hutchison, James Inhofe, and John McCain, profiles in courage against their own policies.
  President Obama introduced PAYGO (pay-as-you-go), a simple rule that says Congress cannot spend a dime without cutting a dime elsewhere. PAYGO was a big reason why America had balanced budgets and record surpluses in the 1990’s in which President Bill Clinton left to the Republican Controlled Congress and White House. Republican Senators John McCain, George Voinovich, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe all endorsed PAYGO in recent years. But then, President Obama endorsed it. Despite supporting PAYGO before John McCain, George Voinovich, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe all voted against it when it came up for a vote last week. McCain, Three Other GOPers, Reverse Support For Pay-Go
  President Obama supports Cap and Trade in an effort to fight global warming and Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, once sponsors and major supporters of cap-and-trade climate legislation, now say they oppose it. McCain Pushes ‘Cap-And-Trade’ Plan to Fight Global Warming.
  On national security, Republicans had no problem with the Bush/Cheney Administration trying terrorism suspects in federal courts. Now that President Obama is doing that same thing, they‘ve decided they‘re against that too. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “We now know that was a mistake, we didn‘t say it was at the time, or even think it was at the time when President Bush did it, but now that President Obama‘s doing it—even on taxes, Republicans are now opposed to the one thing we fought for sure they were definitely for.”
  President Obama during his State of the Union Address “We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time home buyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.” Republicans are no longer in favor of tax cuts especially if they are not for the rich. While President Obama is supporting typical Republican policies, Republicans are voting NO against their own ideas. Republicans are voting NO, against their own ideas, just to stick it to President Obama. Americans be damned! GOP ducking budget blame, Republicans left time bomb that Obama must defuse.
  President Obama’s plan to enact Health Care Legislation to protect Americans and stop greed and Health Insurance from denying coverage and reported by the CBO: Senate Health Bill Would Reduce Deficit $130 Billion over a Decade. Republicans deliberately ignore the 45,000 who die from lack of health insurance each year, had no plan of their own and went on a lying rampage to scare Americans with terms like ‘death panels’ and ‘government take over’. President Obama is initiating financial reform to protect Americans from greedy Wall Street and financial polices which lead America into the greatest financial recession since the 1930s. President Obama want to add a “Fee on big banks to pay back taxpayers for unpaid bailout money, if banks can afford huge multi-million dollar bonuses then they can afford to pay back taxpayers who bailed them out in their time of need.” Republicans are against any type of Wall Street reform or regulations. Republican Strategist, Frank Luntz Pens Memo To Kill Financial Regulatory Reformreported by the Wall Street Journal) notes, “The single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the big bank bailout.” Thus, Republicans should rename Wall Street reform the big bank bailout bill (which Republicans enacted). Should Wall Street pay back taxpayers for the bailout? Democrats say Yes, Republicans side with Wall Street against paying back the bailout money, saying NO. In fact on Feb 4, 2010, Republican Minority Leader John Boehner made the case with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, that Republicans better represent the industry’s interests.
   President Obama just put forth his 2011 budget wrestling with priorities in a country facing double digit unemployment and record deficits while waging two wars. The president seeks a small jobs program in the short term, while committing to deficit reduction beginning next year. He would raise top end taxes, crack down on multinational tax havens, force equity fund managers to pay income taxes like the rest of us, while putting a freeze on domestic discretionary spending for three years, embracing “pay-go” budget discipline on any increase in entitlements or cuts in taxes, and pushing for health care reform which addresses the source of long term deficits and out of control health care costs. This budget will help stabilize in the range of 3.9 percent of GDP.
  While the Administration acknowledges the budget’s red ink, a New York Times editorial noted that “it is not too much at a time of economic weakness, when deficit spending is needed to boost growth. Congress also cannot waste any more time posturing about the deficit rather than doing what is needed to get Americans back to work.” Republicans are already saying NO. Robert L. Borosage recently wrote The GOP: Grand, Old and Preposterous “The GOP is unable and unwilling to have a serious conversation with Americans about the fix we are in. Republicans don’t have a plan for deficit reduction — they just have different priorities. They want tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that they would pay for with deep cuts for working and poor families and the elderly in Medicare and Medicaid. They’d spend more on the military and even less on domestic investments. Republicans don’t have a policy, they have a posture.
  The Republican budget would repeal any spending remaining in the recovery act and oppose any new spending for jobs. This includes repealing the “Make Work Pay” tax credit that gives most Americans a small tax break, and presumably the support for food stamps, aid to states to avoid layoffs of teachers and police, and the infrastructure construction projects that remain. But the Republican budget would abolish Medicare for everyone under 55, replacing it with a voucher program that would be outpaced by inflation over time. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that means about $600 billion in cuts over 10 years would come from Medicare spending. It would similarly end the guarantee that Medicaid provides to low income children, seniors and the disabled, turning it into a block grant to states that would create over $600 billion in cuts below projected expenditures.”
  Let us recap the Republican record of the past 10 years and how they helped hardworking, taxpaying American families:
 Republicans and Bush finished his term with the worst track record ever on jobs since the government began keeping records in 1939. In fact, there’s been zero net job creation since December 1999. “The nation has lost jobs in 25 of the 31 months that Bush has been in office, making for the worst jobs record at this point in a presidency of any administration since Herbert Hoover. Republicans authorized the government tapping our phones, reading our mail and accessing our Internet and bank accounts. Republicans oversaw the greatest pillaging of our treasury by Republicans in pork spending in America’s history.
 Bush and Republicans gave close to $1 trillion in tax cuts to oil companies, big pharma, and Wall Street and allowed companies to ship jobs overseas and allowed these companies not to pay taxes in America;  Bush and Republicans gave Wall Street $350 billion with no strings attached and lifted oversight of banks and Wall Street;  Bush and Republicans spent no money building America’s infrastructure, they opposed health care for children and certainly had no plans to help hardworking, taxpaying Americans on health care.
   Bush and Republicans implemented torture and illegal prisons; and completely ignored American Law, the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention. The greatest act of terrorism on U.S. soil occurred under the Bush and Republican Administration. Republicans and teabaggers typically vote for pro-business Republicans even when their own economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies. They seem to have a misconception that Republicans offer “moral clarity” and are adept at activating deep seated fears in as many of America’s uneducated as possible. They want Americans to be afraid of change and throw out every adjective that stirs up hate – communism, Nazi, Socialism, Death, Government take-over, etc.
  It’s difficult and beyond my rationale why anyone would oppose holding Wall Street, Health Insurance Companies accountable; support giving tax breaks to the richest Americans, Oil Companies and support tax breaks for companies who ship American jobs overseas. There is nothing ‘moral’ about Republicans wanting to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security or opposing health care for America’s children, much less conducting immoral adultery and given a pass by Republicans and teabaggers.
  During the worst national economic collapse, high unemployment, rising health care costs, Republicans have no plans to address any of the issues facing Americans. They only want tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations while supporting deep cuts for working and poor families and the elderly by cutting Medicare, Medicaid and investing Social Security in the stock market. They oppose any investment on domestic issues and infrastructure or people.
  Republicans don’t have policies, they have a posture. They don’t have any programs to help solve American’s problems, they simply offer a message, “Be afraid, be very afraid!”  I Waller    
  theblogmeister                                       

While Republicans Fight Over the Florida Prize, Obama Looking Better And Better To Voters

  The state of Florida - even without its reputation for hanging chads - loves its emerging role as the most important step in the quest for the Republican nomination and the shining hope for President Obama. "Let those Republicans fight it out here, calling each other names," said Ann Zucker, president of the Weston Democratic Club, near Ft. Lauderdale. "After listening to Romney, Gingrich and Santorum call each other every possible name in these debates, any sane voter would turn to re-electing our Democratic leader Barack Obama."
Today's headlines in Florida newspapers told the same story.

"RIVALS TRADE FIRE IN S. FLORIDA" was the banner in the Miami Herald this morning. "Contenders Slug It Out" was the lead story in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
  The Republicans' 19th debate tonight is expected to showcase the importance of the Sunshine State once again. Republicans expect to shower all of these contenders with questions as to U.S. policy towards Cuba. "As Florida goes, so goes America," is the Republican cry among potential supporters, noting that the GOP winner in Florida gets all of its 57 delegate votes at its national convention.  Florida - considered a November swing state -- is a winner-take-all delegate site and has one of the country's largest GOP delegations. CNN, NBC, and polling groups for news organizations showed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in a dead heat in Florida for the Republican nomination with former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Congressman Ron Paul with lower numbers, while similar polls also showed President Obama with growing leads among Florida voters with respect to handling the office of the presidency, handling the economy, and in positive views for employment opportunities. Local TV news shows in South Florida -- a normally huge Democratic base -- led their newscasts this week with the polling results.
  Florida, still trying to throw off its reputation as the hanging chad site of 2000, has been plugging its importance as the most representative state in the early primary season and a major state in the election process with 29 electoral votes. Underscoring its importance, Florida Republicans will host a pre-selected confab for their calendar - the Hispanic Leadership Forum - on Jan. 26-27, in the Miami area, home to most of the Cubans who emigrated to the U.S. during the Castro years. Interested Republican parties as well as Democratic naysayers noted that the Forum is being heavily touted on local South Florida television. Gingrich and Romney supporters are expected to pack the Forum scheduled for the Doral Country Club. Its official sponsor, The Hispanic Leadership Network (HLN), is a self-described center-right advocacy action group, and recently announced that Gingrich, Romney, and Santorum will address its "Inspiring Action" conference. Carlos Gutierrez, who was the former Commerce Secretary under President George Bush, will serve as conference co-chair, according to the Forum's website. However, a blast of TV commercials only mention and show former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's name and Republicans say that the timing of the conference and the Jan. 31 Florida primary date is just a coincidence. Jeb Bush says he will remain neutral in the GOP's presidential primary, noting that he considers both Romney and Gingrich credible candidates. Both candidates have courted the popular former Florida governor. (Jeb's father, George H.W. Bush, has been quoted in the Houston Chronicle and on the Internet that he was giving Romney "an unofficial endorsement.") The rumor mills, however, often mention Jeb Bush as a potential nominee in a brokered convention, while other pundits have Florida's junior Senator Marco Rubio a natural for vice president, hopefully to bring with him Florida's large Hispanic vote.
  TV commercials -- including those from Super PACs in Florida -- continue to dominate the political scene. Romney alone has spent several hundred thousand dollars for 60-second TV spots the past two weeks in Florida's eight expensive TV markets stretching from the Florida Panhandle to Key West. However, Gingrich and others have countered their messages, responding that Romney's 13.9 per cent in taxes from his multi-million income released to the public on the eve of Obama's State of the Union address only underscored the President's argument that the rich are not paying their fair share. Romney's tax return, released Tuesday (just before Obama's address to Congress) did not get lost in the presidential news coverage in Florida. Romney's estimated income of nearly $21 million dollars and his low rate of taxation - less than 14 per cent because of capital gains - is now fueling the emerging debate over fairness in the tax code, an issue that President Obama emphasized in his address to the nation. Romney's lack of clarity on his taxes, which continues to dog him even after issuing the 500 page document on the Internet -- is being cited as the reason he did so poorly in last week's South Carolina vote, where Gingrich won overwhelmingly. Gingrich continues to throw the tax salvos at his opponent; a wire service report cited Sen. McCain, who endorsed Romney in early January, calling on Republicans to stop negative campaigning and insults, saying it was harmful to the Republican party. Others are saying the tax issue is the reason Gingrich crushed Romney in South Carolina. "Whether it's a ball game or a political race, momentum counts...and Gingrich has it," the Republican state Senator Mike Bennett told The Tampa Bay Times in an interview picked up and reprinted around the state. CNN reported that close to 200,000 votes had already been cast as of Wednesday evening. That may be a moot point right now inasmuch as voting is already underway. Actually, Republicans - primarily die-hard fans of the four remaining GOP candidates -- are already going to the polls in record numbers because of the early voting agreement of the legislature. It allows early voting through Jan. 28, three days before the official election day. In Florida 473,573 absentee ballots have been requested in the past week and, according to election officials, "thousands" have already voted either absentee or at early voting sites around the state.
  There are plenty of opinions coming from the early voters. The Miami Herald noted recently that Romney is hoping 2012 will be better than 2008 when Sen, John McCain beat him by 5 percentage points, 36-31 percent. The Herald cited examples of the Romney-Gingrich battle in Florida, such as 71-year old Julio Pallais of Miami, who came to Florida from Nicaragua 25 years ago. Pallas said he voted for Gingrich because of Romney's stance on illegal immigration, while Joy Diamond of Pompano Beach went for Romney because of Gingrich's age, 68, "not to mention his checkered past," Diamond said.
  In the meantime, the debates and battle for those 57 GOP delegates will continue, even if a huge number of the Florida electorate have already voted in the past few days.  Thanks to Ron Levitt for great work.
  I love to see the Republicans calling each other names and making their party look bad all the way around. Romney and Gingrich are the only two with the super PAC's money keeping them in this race. I hope America sees what would happen if either candidate becomes President of the United States. If you happen to be a millionaire Romney looks appealing to you. Well, most of us are just hardworking middle-class Americans who need an advocate like President Obama. I have trust in the American people that Obama will get to finish what he started and in two years the Democratic party will gain seats in both houses. The tea party put too much on the GOP and they cannot deliver. Hope will spring eternal. I believe that. Thanks for your time. God Bless America!      theblogmeister