Obama is just now beginning to get the chance to show what he can really do for the country – and he will be able to do much, much more when we get a House majority again and Senate that is filibuster proof! That’s what we’ll be fighting for, and with the way things are going, Republicans have alienated their own base as well as independents with radicalism to such a point (killing Medicare, threatening to kill Social Security, etc.) that it should be an easier fight than ever before.

WASHINGTON — Bedeviled by a bleak employment picture, President Barack Obama is pushing for more private sector hiring while seeking to protect his own job during a two-day domestic trip that aims to raise his political profile in two key states and with an important Hispanic constituency.

In North Carolina on Monday, the president will press for more jobs in targeted industries, including tourism and green energy sectors. Later in the day, he will attend three fundraisers in donor-rich Miami. He will end his travels Tuesday in Puerto Rico, a visit considered essential as he courts the Puerto Rican vote in the mainland, especially in Florida.

For Obama, the trip is an opportunity to offer a counterpart to what is sure to be a sustained attack on his policies Monday night during a nationally televised debate in New Hampshire among Republican presidential hopefuls.

Obama will tour the Durham, N.C., plant of Cree, Inc., a maker of energy efficient LED lighting. He then will discuss jobs initiatives with his jobs council, a panel headed by General Electric chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt.

In an opinion piece published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, Immelt and American Express CEO and chairman Ken Chennault laid out a series of jobs council ideas to increase employment, including easing visa applications to attract more tourists and increasing energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

An independent analysis of the energy efficiency proposal concluded that it could create more than 114,000 new jobs, many in the construction industry. The study was conducted by The Real Estate Roundable, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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