Obama. Romney. Gingrich. Santorum. Ron Paul.

Obama follows all my Public Speaking rules except one. He fails to deliver a substantive "take-away" from his oratory. He uses cadence, tone, silence, pause, summary and repetition, but at the end his oratory leaves the listener with nothing to take-away. Hope pays no bills nor does it get a paycheck.

A few weeks ago, I blogged that the republicans would push Gingrich from the foreground into the background. They have done it. Rick Santorum, in training for the future, and Ron Paul's last presidential race hurrah, are simply side bars to a fait accompli for Romney.  In my opinion, Romney will prove to be an excellent fund raiser, but poor competitor for Obama.

And with the imminent departure of Gingrich, there is no  one left to match the skilled oratory of Obama. Romney's fund raising ability trumps Gingrich's leadership ability. That is not to say that should the unlikely event occur that Romney should win next November, Romney would not make a thoughtful albeit cautious president. He will. But Romney lacks a set of intractable principles for slicing the government and dicing the budget into a manageable situation.

My advice. Hunker down for a horizontal growth economy, volatile stock market and a political race that is much ado about nothing. It will make great survivor TV.