This Week's Big Winner and Loser!

This week's big winner: Louisiana and New Orleans.

The response to Hurricane Gustav has been remarkable. The evacuation of the Gulf Coast has run more smoothly than anyone expected and that is a tribute to the leadership of Governor Bobby Jindal and The Big Easy's Mayor Ray Nagin. They had a very organized campaign to clear the area and patrol the streets to protect the public from looters, which is why more people stay during natural disasters than leave.

Normally, I would say they were just doing their jobs and because they were just doing their jobs they don't qualify for being a winner. But after both the natural and political disasters of Katrina and Rita three years ago, the authorities got their butts in gear and worked to prevent them ever occurring again. After all, isn't life about learning from your mistakes?

The critical thinking and fast action of these governments are what make them this week's big winners.

This week's loser: Barack Obama.

From what was supposed to be his big week, the week of all weeks, the week that he was to re-introduce himself to the nation as a hard-hitting, take no prisoners campaigner, the week he was to prove he can make great executive decisions by choosing a vice-president the nation was very open to - has been stepped on by - (drum roll, please)

John McCain. Ouch.

The McCain camp made a very smart move by announcing the V.P choice the day after Obama's big speech in Denver. Not only did they announce it, but they created more buzz by leaking several false reports naming several potential veeps causing a frenzy at the networks. This was a very risky, but ultimately a very wise move for McCain. It payed off. The weekend headliner was to be Obama, but instead he found himself below the fold on all the major newspapers.

Obama also got a nice bounce out of the convention: Real Clear Politics shows roughly nine points. It would have been much bigger, maybe double if McCain would have waited until Sunday to announce.

But he didn't.

Now we all await the arrival of McCain's speech on Thursday. Can he hold a candle to Obama?

We shall see.