As my friends know, I like Gov. Romney a lot, but it's time for a new face. Frankly, there are lots of "new faces", from Gov. Walker to Gov. Kasich to Gov. Jindal and Senator Rubio. The GOP is very fortunate to have a strong bench and one will emerge to win the nomination. It's time to say thanks to very good and decent men like Mr. Romney and look forward to the future.

The other big story, and much more consequential, is the U.S. economy. It's time to put "Happy Days are here again" io the shelf and spin something more realistic.

According to BEA, the U.S. economy slowed down in the 4th quarter:

"Real gross domestic product -- the value of the production of goods and services in the United States, adjusted for price changes -- increased at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 5.0 percent."

CNN Money sees it this way:

"The disappointing growth at the end of the year comes on the heels of the economy's incredible 5% growth in the third quarter, which was the best since 2003.

"There were these grand hopes for 3% growth and it still seems elusive on a sustainable basis," says Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group. "We still can't get out of this 2 to 2.5% GDP growth rate box you could call it. I don't expect anything different in 2015."

Let me say a couple of things:

The 2.4% GDP growth for 2014 must be seen in the context of that big 3rd quarter. It sure looks now like the 3rd quarter was the odd one! The other 3 were a disappointment, specially in the 5th anniversary of "the stimulus" and all of those "shovel ready jobs" promised.

Furthermore, you can't create enough jobs growing around 2.5%. We have not had those big quarters, like we did in the Reagan recovery, that translate into lots of job creation.  

This economy is still waiting for that "big hit" and leaving too many men on base. Needless to say, the GOP must have a "growth message" for 2016, along with a strategy to fight ISIS.

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