As most of you are aware, today's convention sessions were cancelled with the exception of a ceremonial opening. The day's events for the delegates started with our delegate meeting at the hotel and then a reception at the Florida Aquarium. 

Andy Lewis, Bob Willert and I decided to walk to the aquarium instead of taking the shuttle bus and it turned into a Griswald (as in Clark Griswald) type of adventure. After a two mile walk in driving rain, we finally arrived at the aquarium, where Governor Corbett spoke about the importance of a Romney victory for job creation in Pennsylvania. 

The remainder of the day was open for Delegates to tour the convention area and get to know our way around town. The RNC has announced that the schedule is back on track tomorrow with a double session starting at 2pm. 

There are some very interesting speakers tomorrow, including Mia Love who is running for Congress from Utah. If she wins, she will be the first African American to represent Utah in Congress. The main speaker tomorrow evening is Governor Chris Christie. He is a dynamic speaker with a blunt delivery which, in my opinion, is just what the doctor ordered for a Romney candidacy.

With the convention officially underway, it's a good time to remind voters just how high the stakes really are in this election. When he took office in January of 2009, President Obama inherited an economy in recession. We were still reeling from the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis, unemployment was 7.8%, and our national debt exceeded $10 trillion. There is no doubt President Obama was dealt a challenging hand. 

However, he was also provided withs large mandate and control of BOTH houses of Congress which, in plain English, meant he had the run of the roost and could pass whatever legislation he felt was necessary to remedy the situation. Those decisions, and their consequences, are where undecided voters should focus their attention.  

Unlike many Republicans, I acknowledge that a stimulus package was necessary to head off a full depression. But was it a successful stimulus? Did it produce meaningful, lasting jobs? Is there anything remaining from the $800 billion stimulus? Where did the money go? Where are the roads, bridges and dams? Instead, the money went to countless frivolous adventures like Solyndra. 

The President then used the remainder of his political clout to enact the largest tax increase in history under the guise of health care reform. During that long and acrimonious debate, all we heard about was how "broken" our healthcare system was and how badly it served the people of the United States. 

Republlicans like Pat Meehan and Pat Toomey acknowledge the need for health care reform. In addition, Republicans believe that those who are less fortunate should have access to healthcare. However, we start out at a completely different place than the President. The United States of America has the best healthcare system in the world. People from all over the world come here to the United States for treatment. Our health care system was based on a free-market, consumer-driven system -- not a single payer system like France, England and Canada. The system needed to be reformed -- not set on the path towards a European entitlement model.

Regardless of whether people agree with the above opinion, the facts are the facts. Four years later our debt is now approaching $16 trillion – more than the size of the entire American economy. Unemployment is stagnant at 8.2%, and hasn't been below 8% since the day the President took office. 23 million Americans are out of work – the worst stretch of unemployment our nation has seen since the Great Depression.

Those aren't the only sobering statistics of the Obama Administration. The underemployment rate – which includes people who are forced to work only part-time jobs and people who want to work but have given up looking – is hovering around 15%. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates is more than 50%. Most alarmingly, the percentage of Americans active in the workforce at all is the lowest in 30 years.

Since 2009, household income has dropped almost 5%, and among people between the ages of 25 and 34, it has dropped almost 9%. When Obama took office, a gallon of gasoline cost $1.84. Today, a gallon of gas in Springfield costs $3.71 – a more than 100% increase. More than 46 million Americans are on food stamps – a 50% increase from 2008. Despite promises to make health care more affordable for families, Obamacare has caused the cost of health insurance to rise even faster – up more than 10% since the law was passed.

Those facts lead to the conclusion that President Obama and his team of advisers did not then and do not now have the experience to provide solutions to our economic woes. Put in plain poker terms, he had all the chips (a huge election victory, both houses of Congress, a broad mandate for change) and he went all in (a failed stimulus, massive health care tax) and lost. a skilled poker player doesn't make that move. A president with the right experience in private enterprise doesn't make that move, either. We can do better and tomorrow, the Republicans will begin to lay out their plan.