Mitt Romney took the stage Tuesday night to concede that he had lost his race for president. 

Mitt Romney has raised an interesting point that could end up a topic of discussion on tonight’s Paul Ryan-Joe Biden’s vice-president debate.

Citizens hardly seem to mind that Gov. Bobby Jindal travels a lot to other states, so long as he is home for the hurricanes. Political leaders, of course, are expected to be front and center for emergencies, for those are the times that the people really do want to see them.
First responders performed heroically during and after Hurricane Isaac, while government agencies and officials did what they were supposed to do, which is more than they have in past disasters.

On the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the people of Louisiana were struck again by Hurricane Isaac. This storm was not as powerful or deadly as Katrina, but it was a monster nonetheless. It might have been the strongest Category 1 hurricane in history. Initial estimates of property damage exceed $2 billion and that amount will surely rise. Over one million people lost power throughout the region. While New Orleans was mostly spared, homes were destroyed in nearby Plaquemines Parish, as well as parts of LaPlace and Slidell. Unfortunately, the threat is not over as rising waters continue to threaten vast regions of the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. 

For months during the Republican presidential primary campaign, Mitt Romney has tried to focus the debate on economic issues.  He has continually argued that the campaign should be about the economy and job creation.  “Bill Clinton beat George Bush by talking about only the economy,” he would argue.  But try as he did during the campaign season, his cohorts, also seeking the Republican nomination, kept bringing up those nasty social issues.

But now that he’s the Republican nominee, Mitt is calling the shots and controlling the GOP agenda.  He’s on the attack and seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the Democrats on the defensive.  But there’s just one problem.  Romney’s Achilles heel is Republican members of congress, including his new vice presidential nominee, who keep undermining what Romney hopes to be a disciplined conservative economic agenda.

By Mike Bayham

One thing reasonable political observers on both sides of the partisan divide can agree on is that the 2012 presidential election will not be a replay of the 2008 contest.

If President Barack Obama is re-elected, his win will not resemble the electoral landslide that swept him and his party into the White House. In all likelihood, the finish will resemble George W. Bush’s squeakers. 

If those taking the Bayoubuzz poll had their say about Mitt Romney’s VP pick, Paul Ryan, the current top of the GOP ticket would be all smiles.
After the announcement was made, Bayoubuzz published its poll to rate Paul Ryan as the VP choice.

While the leading actors in this year’s election performances, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, are getting the headlines, their surrogates are getting plenty of criticisms.

In fact, it appears that Paul Ryan and Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal have more in common than both wanting to be vice-president, an honor bestowed upon the Wisconsin member of the House of Representatives.

A year ago he was an intriguing possible choice. Key Romney operatives were putting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on their “watch list.” The young Bayou State’s chief executive had conservative stalwarts like Rush Limbaugh and Bill Krystol praising his strong credentials that qualified him to become the Republican vice presidential nominee of choice. But when all was said and done, Jindal‘s actions and inactions rapidly relegated him to a list of second tier candidates.

If Gov. Bobby Jindal does envision a career ahead of him in extremely high national office, potentially the Republican vice presidential candidate pick of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Rep. Paul Ryan presents the most problems possible for that to come to fruition and directly affects his next steps relative to service to the state of Louisiana.

Ryan went a bit against type in becoming (presumptively) only the fourth nominee in the past century from a major party from the House that did not serve in the Senate or as a governor (and the only winner, John Nance Garner who became vice president in 1933, had served as both House Speaker and Minority Leader). In fact, one must go back over a century to find the closest parallel to a choice like Ryan’s: the GOP’s James Sherman who won in 1908 and, like Ryan, was famous for sweeping policy preferences but, like Ryan, was not in the highest leadership positions in the House and/or his party.