State of the Union is of debate.

 The state of the UNION is a matter of Debate .

In the key swing state of Florida, Mitt Romney would be a stronger candidate than Newt Gingrich against President Obama in the general election, according to a new Suffolk University/7NEWS(WSVN-Miami) poll of Florida voters.

The former Massachusetts governor leads Mr. Obama among likely Florida voters 47 percent to 42 percent, which is just outside the 4 percent margin of error. Gingrich didn't fare nearly so well. Florida voters would choose Mr. Obama over the former House Speaker by 9 percentage points

Gingrich's challenges are event greater with independent voters. Only 19 percent of Florida independents had a favorable view of the former House speaker, and independents would favor Mr. Obama over Gingrich 56 percent to 29 percent.
"Newt Gingrich is weak among Florida independents and likely Democratic voters compared to Romney," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston. "If Florida is one of six key states that swings the national election, independents in Florida hold that key, and this poll suggests that Newt won't be able to secure Florida for his party."
Romney fared much better with independents, with 44 percent of Florida independents having a favorable view of him. One-fifth of voters in Florida are registered as independent.

THE STAE OF THE UNION.

President Obama continues to battle high unemployment and frosty relations with Congress just as Americans begin to weigh whether to give him a second term. But he made the case that the nation has made progress on several fronts under his stewardship. Here's a look behind the rhetoric:But many of his proposals amounted to a reprise of past administration pledges, such as a long-standing Interior Department commitment to permit 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects on public land this year.

President Barack Obama called economic fairness “the defining issue of our time” in his State of the Union address Tuesday, casting himself as a defender of middle-class Americans and setting the agenda for his reelection campaign.
“It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom: No bailouts, no handouts and no cop-outs. An America built to last insists on responsibility from everybody,” Obama told a joint session of Congress. “Let’s never forget: Millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same.”Mr. Obama would seem to have the advantage in this fight: A CBS News/New York Times poll out Tuesday found that 55 percent of Americans think upper-income taxpayers pay less than their fair share. And in the wake of the emergence of the "Occupy" movement, a Pew survey earlier this month found that two in three Americans now see a strong conflict between rich and poor. Even the two leading Republican presidential candidates, Romney and Newt Gingrich, have gotten into a fight over whether Romney's former company Bain Capital engages in heartless capitalism that rewards the rich while leaving average Americans behind.