(Photo: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

It felt like old times earlier today when I spent close to an hour stalking former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis while he participated in a Google meet-up here at the Republican National Convention.

Aside from a friendly hello, Davis wasn’t talking and his handlers were fiercely protective of both the new Republican and the speech he would deliver later.

The waiting is over and there’s no turning back for Davis.

I knew that his speech would target Democrats and independents, who like him, are disappointed in President Obama’s record. What I didn’t expect, however, were the snarky references to what he described as Obama’s celebrity.

“What a difference four years makes,” Davis said. “The Democrats’ ads convince me that Gov. Romney can’t sing, but his record convinces me he knows how to lead, and I think you know which skill we need more.”

Citing the 2008 Democratic National Convention, he said that some people may have mistaken the glare of the lights as Obama spoke for a halo.

Seriously?

I have no problem with Davis’ switch in party affiliation. In fact, it spices things up a bit and lends not just another African-American voice on that ideological side of the aisle but also a smart one. But weren’t he and Obama kind of friends or at least friendly? If some people, including Davis, it seems, mistook the man for a messiah back then, shame on them.

And shame on Davis for repeating his new party’s false claim that the president is gutting the welfare to work requirement. Less than an hour after he made it, Politifact tweeted: “Again: Not true.”

(Photo: NOAA via Getty Images)

What’s up with the Republican Party and hurricanes? After all the hand wringing and rearranging of events, Tampa has been largely spared the wrath of Isaac. Aside from the sweltering humidity and occasional rainstorm that is to some part of just another day in paradise, it’s a perfect day for a convention.

Meanwhile, Isaac is making its thunderous way toward Louisiana, and could hit New Orleans on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Bobby Jindal, who was set to address the convention Wednesday night, has canceled his trip.

“There is no time for politics here in Louisiana,” he said at a Monday press conference.

Jindal had to scrap plans to attend the 2008 convention, too, thanks to Hurricane Gustav. In an act of solidarity and to not appear insensitive, the GOP delayed the start of its convention in Minneapolis.

Journalists are a jaded lot and on what was supposed to be the first day of this year’s confab, we find ourselves with a bit of time on our hands to speculate: Did the GOP jump the gun this year? And while understandable, it’s a move Republican leaders could regret.

Few people will likely ever erase from their memory the visual of Katrina’s thousands of mostly African-American victims stranded on rooftops, the football stadium and other places. And no matter how many thoughts and prayers everyone in Tampa sends to Louisiana on Wednesday or Thursday night, the visual of the party fêting itself  juxtaposed against victims of another potentially devastating storm  is also a sight many Americans won’t likely forget.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

By Joyce Jones

Donald Trump is back on the birther bandwagon and his zeal for bashing President Obama could come back and bite Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney in the butt.

“A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book,” he said in an interview with The Daily Beast last week. “[Obama] said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital.”

The misguided mogul was referring to a decades-old client catalog produced by Obama’s literary agent that incorrectly claimed that the future president was born in Kenya. Miriam Goderich, who was an assistant at the agency at the time, publicly acknowledged that she’d misidentified Obama’s birthplace.

But why let the facts get in the way of an attack?

“He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth. The literary agent wrote down what he said,” Trump rattled on. “Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.”

Romney should take heed of the adage “if you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas” since Trump is hosting a Las Vegas fundraiser for him next week. Will Romney denounce Trump’s dogged pursuit of his ridiculous birther theory, or remain silent and wake up with fleas? If Romney is smart, he’ll disassociate himself from Mr. Bad Combover because crucial independent voters might think twice about supporting him over Obama.

(Photos: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images; Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

By Joyce Jones

Now that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have awakened from their dream of becoming president, each will be expected to exhibit signs of amnesia about how Mitt Romney basically money-bombed them off the campaign trail with negative advertising. But Team Obama has no plans to forget and can be expected to beat that drum from now until November.

“[Romney’s] basically reduced to running a negative campaign,” said senior advisor David Axelrod during a Monday conference call with reporters. “We have a different approach.”

It’s called “Go,” a $25 million ad buy that will air in nine battleground states. It’s filled with positive messages about President Obama’s record, Axelrod explained, but make no mistake, when the hits from the Romney campaign come their way, they’re willing and, more important, ready to hit back.

“We’re also going to be prepared — and I want to be clear — to respond to the attacks that we expect to continue not just from the Romney campaign but the [Karl] Rove and Koch brothers contract killers over there in super PAC land who are going to continue to pound away on behalf of Gov. Romney,” he said.

During the call there was a bit of a technological hiccup, rendering several reporters unable to ask questions. Axelrod joked that the glitch must have come out of the GOP’s bag of dirty tricks.

“These Republicans will stop at nothing,” he said. “They’ve snipped our lines.”