Rep. Vern Buchanan condemns Obama's Middle East speech, defends Israel

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, today responded with a vigorous defense of Israel in response to President Barack Obama's speech Thursday in which he called for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians based on boundaries in place before the Six-Day War of 1967 --which Israel's Arab neighbors started and Israel finished by seizing territory including East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

Buchanan, according to a news release from his office, "condemned" the president's speech.

"The borders of any Palestinian state should be determined through negotiations with Israel at the table, not announced in a presidential edict that gives away Israeli land as Palestinians continue to call for the destruction of Israel," Buchanan said in the release. “In these days of danger and change, we must reaffirm the unbreakable bond we have forged with our most trusted ally in the Middle East.”

You can read the whole statement here.

Crist won't dodge Obama this time around

Gov. Charlie Crist, feeling the sting of the man-hug that won't go away, made himself unavailable the last time President Barack Obama came to Florida. The governor even said he wasn't aware that Obama's schedule would have him in the Sunshine State.

However, the White House this morning confirmed that Crist would be leading the greeting party when Air Force One lands at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa about noon today. After touring a maintenance hangar, Obama will take a motorcade ride to the University of Tampa for a town hall meeting on the economy that is expected to include an announcement about federal stimulus funding for a planned high-speed rail line linking Tampa and Orlando.

Perhaps sensitive to political realities - too many fresh photos of Crist and Obama within feet of each other likely would do Crist no good in his heated battle with Marco Rubio for the GOP Senate nomination - Crist turned down a White House invitation for the town hall, according to Politico.

Obama, Biden to visit Tampa Bay area after State of the Union

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will travel to the Tampa Bay area on Jan. 28, a day after Obama delivers his State of the Union Address, according to the St. Petersburg Times' political blog.

"More details on the visit will be announced soon," a White House spokeswoman told the Times. The official declined to say what the visit would entail or if it had anything to do with Florida's application for $2.5 billion in funding for a high-speed rail line that would run from Orlando to Tampa.

Obama was last in Florida in late October, when he made several stops in the state, including at the Florida Power & Light's new solar power plant in Arcadia.