Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele says President Barack Obama’s State of the Union was a missed opportunity to explain why the country still suffers from double-digit unemployment and a growing budget deficit.

Steele said at a meeting of the Republican National Committee at the Hilton Hawaiian Village that Obama tried to restart his agenda. But Steele says Obama is still suffering from what Steele called an “acute case of campaign fever” a year after the president’s inauguration.
GOP leaders are trying to map out a campaign strategy for the 2010 elections. They are buoyed by their success last week in Republican Scott Brown’s election to the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
Gov. Linda Lingle is addressing the RNC today.