Hours before President Barack Obama spoke on the economy in Downtown Austin, Greg Abbott, Texas attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate cricticized Obama's economic policy.

“The problem is the president does little more than just talk,” Abbott said. “It reminds us Texans of an old saying we have, ‘He’s all hat and no cattle.’”

Addressing a packed crowd at Lavassa Espression, a downtown coffee shop across the street from the Paramount Theatre – the site of Obama's speech. Abbott said Obama should adopt Texas' economic model.

“President Obama truly can get the American economy growing again, but to do that he will have to do more than just come to Austin, Texas and give speeches,” Abbott said. “Hopefully, while he’s here he will learn why Texas is the best state in the nation for creating jobs.”

Speaking to a room of mostly women at a woman-owned business, Abbott said women are a huge part of the state’s economic success. Texas is the state with the second-highest number of woman-owned businesses, and last year, woman-owned businesses in Texas grew at twice the rate of the national average, according to Abbott.

“The Texas model promotes opportunity and rewards ingenuity by having less government, low taxes, and predictable regulations,” Abbott said.

According to a UT/Texas Tribune Poll in June, Abbott is leading state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Forth Worth, in the governor's race by 12 points. University Democrats President Max Patterson told The Daily Texan after the event Abbott’s criticism of the president’s policies was an attempt to distract from what he called the failures of our Republican state leadership.

“Attorney General Abbott simply wants to attack the president, instead of addressing the issues facing hard-working Texans,” Patterson said. “If Abbott actually cared about women’s rights and economic success, he would support equal pay legislation, he would pay women in his own office a fair wage.”

College Republicans President Alexander Parker said the state has been one of the leaders in supporting the growth of women entrepreneurs.

“We have no doubt that Greg Abbott will continue this impressive growth,” Parker said. “The president should look toward the example that Texas has set as he considers our nation’s economic future.”

Abbott said the 737,000 women-owned businesses in the state have helped make Texas the number-one state for job creation.

“Texas is number one in the nation for so many different areas of the economy not because of Barack Obama‘s policies, but despite those policies,” he said.