Seizing on recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that some hormonal birth control be available over the counter, the Louisiana governor and presumed presidential hopeful seeks to play them against the Affordable Care Act. He claims that Obama's big government is actually making it harder for women to access birth control, despite the fact that the ACOG recommendations would work best in tandem with the Affordable Care Act birth control provisions, not instead of them.

Making birth control more accessible in any way possible is generally a good idea. But in Jindal's haste to find "the end of birth control politics," he ignores some crucial benefits of the Affordable Care Act as well as the deep-seated opposition to many forms of birth control, not just insurance coverage of it, among his own allies.

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In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Jindal tried to put an anti-big-government spin on his position, while also moving away from the social conservative wing of the party and addressing a gender gap which hurt Mitt Romney and likely cost Republicans Senate seats in Indiana and Missouri.

Jindal wrote that Republicans have been "stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue," while embracing the  American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists call for over-the-counter sales and seeking to push the issue out of the "political arena.

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We just managed to get through a campaign in which the Republican candidate’s idea of innovation was to hold a convention themed around an out-of-context quote from his opponent. But we knew Mitt Romney was at his heart a manager, not a policy innovator. So maybe it will be better next time, with new candidates such as Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. Right?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Of course, there’s still plenty of time for innovative conservative ideas. Hey, don’t laugh. Ronald Reagan campaigned on a whole book full of policy options, and as recently as 2000, George W. Bush really did feature new ideas in his campaign.

But neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney had any interest in such things – and judging from the three proto-candidates who rolled out their “ideas” this week, it looks as if Republican politicians these days don’t even remember what actual policy ideas look like.

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I’m not talking about the illusion of an advantage that comes with winning consecutive elections. That might be the result of a streak in which the party is helped by favorable fundamentals, or it can be, as with Democratic majorities in the New Deal era, simply part of a national advantage. In either case, a party might win the same states every time, but -- as Republicans discovered in 1992 -- when those favorable conditions end, the apparent electoral “lock” disappears, too.

No, I’m talking about an Electoral College edge above and beyond the national vote. That’s not defined by which states went for which candidate; it’s found by looking at what would have happened in the Electoral College if an election had been tied in the national vote. To calculate it, assume uniform swing – that is, if swing state Ohio moves toward the Democrats, then liberal Vermont and conservative Utah will also move toward the Democrats by the same amount. In reality, the states don’t swing quite that equally, but they’re very close to it.

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This reading of the ’08 results was reinforced by the first few years of Obama’s presidency, when his approval rating fell to under 50 percent and Republicans won a massive midterm victory.  That Obama was the second coming of Jimmy Carter became an article of faith on the right, and a GOP White House restoration in 2012 was taken as a given. Which is why their resounding defeat last week has been so traumatic for Republicans. And this loss seems to be having a different effect on the party: This time, it’s shifting the party away from the purity obsession and absolutist rejectionism that defined its conduct in Obama’s first term.

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“That is absolutely wrong,” Jindal said at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Las Vegas. “Two points on that. One, we have got to stop dividing American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent — we need to go after every single vote. And second, we need to continue to show that our policies help every voter out there achieve the American dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children the opportunity to get a great education, which is for their children to have even better-paying jobs than their parents.”

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The selection itself isn't completely meaningless: If Romney's elected, the vice president may end up having some influence over policy, especially in an administration headed by someone known for his fungible ideology. There's even a chance Romney could make a currently little-known politician into a future presidential contender, though Republican V.P. picks after Bush I haven't really gone on to much glory.

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It's been two days since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened up the Morganza Spillway in northern Louisiana to mitigate the threat of historic flooding in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The event marked just the second time in history that the floodgates were opened, a reflection of the severity of the situation in the Mississippi River basin. For now, it appears as if Louisiana's major cities are safe, as water levels remain stable. But tens of thousands living in rural portions of the state -- specifically the Atchafalaya River basin, into which the Morganza Spillway empties -- have been forced to evacuate their homes.

We've collected a series of dramatic photos and videos to help you visualize the situation along the mighty Mississippi.

CNN has gripping video of water pouring through the Morganza Spillway.

ABC's "Nightline" surveys the damage from flooding on the Mississippi River basin.

AP

A mother comforts her daughter as they both watch floodwaters rise around their home in Vicksburg, Miss., Monday.

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture / CC BY 3.0

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Less than 24 hours after the president's press conference on Wednesday, for instance, Oklahoma's House of Representatives passed a bill requiring presidential candidates to provide proof of identity and U.S. citizenship in order to appear on the state's ballot. In all, about a dozen similar bills have been introduced in legislatures across the country. (In Arizona, a birther bill actually passed earlier this month, only to be vetoted by Gov. Jan Brewer.) Some of the proposed laws have some interesting twists -- including one that would declare any voter who cast a ballot for an ineligible candidate guilty of a crime.

Here are a look at the five most notable birther bills that are still pending:

Oklahoma

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The New York Times reported last night that corporations including Marathon Oil, AT&T, Northrup Grumman, Dow Chemical, Alon USA and various state contractors have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the foundation. All of those companies have business with the state. All of them received permits or evaded fines or won contracts.

Everyone involved in this pay-to-play-ish venture claims nothing untoward is going on. The major corporations simply love children. And if, following an oil company's donation, "state environmental officials [ease] requirements for the company to check for spills of oil, ammonia or other contaminants in waterways," well, that's just a coincidence.

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In his new book, "Leadership and Crisis," Jindal repeats a favorite story that first drew scrutiny when he told it last year. And subtle but telling shifts in the way Jindal recounts the story suggest that the original version was less than accurate.

This gets a bit complicated, so bear with us. The story of the story begins in February 2009, when Jindal was selected for the plum assignment of giving the Republican response to President Obama's first State of the Union address. A central anecdote in that speech involved Jindal, at the height of Katrina in 2005, supposedly helping the sheriff of Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans to beat back an unnamed bureaucrat who was trying to block boats from rescuing stranded citizens because the boats lacked proof of registration. Here is the video of that bit of the speech, with transcript below: 

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Republicans are seeking hopefuls to challenge President Barack Obama, but the 39-year-old governor said Monday his only political ambition is to run for governor again next year.

"I'm not being coy at all. I'm not running for president in 2012. Period. No ifs, ands or buts, no caveats," Jindal told The Associated Press in an interview. "We have made great progress in Louisiana, but we've got a lot more work to do."

Jindal's book charts the rise of the 39-year-old son of Indian immigrants to the Louisiana governor's office, while criticizing the Obama administration. It's silent on any national ambitions.

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"You learn to try and show people how you’re more alike than you are different," Haley, who was born Nimrata Randhawa into an Indian Sikh family, admitted to the New York Times earlier this year.

Bobby Jindal, raised in an Indian Hindu family in Baton Rouge, changed his name and converted to Catholicism. Now, Louisiana’s Republican governor is regarded as a potential candidate for his party’s presidential nomination.

When asked by "60 Minutes" last year if they follow any Indian traditions, Jindal and his wife insisted that "we were raised as Americans, we were raised as Louisianans, so that’s how we live our lives."

There’s no doubt that the religious conversions of Haley and Jindal, the two most prominent Indian-American politicians, have powerful personal and spiritual roots. But it’s also inarguable that being Christians with Anglicized names has made it easier for them to create bonds with the overwhelmingly white and deeply religious voters who dominate Republican politics in the South.

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"In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the national Democratic view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government. We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington, to empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs."

This week, Jindal is singing a different tune. As one of the greatest oil spills in U.S. history starts lapping at the shores of Louisiana, Gulf shrimpers and oyster fisheries are shutting down shop -- possibly for months. The total cost to Gulf state economies could run into the billions. So Jindal wants help.

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Now the president’s going in front of Congress again, and the opposition gets to choose another of its members to offer a rebuttal. Yet again, the Republicans are going with a Louisianan, albeit one without Jindal's high profile: Rep. Charles Boustany.

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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is one of those who might be gearing up for a campaign. He's long been discussed as a contender, and though the hype diminished in the wake of his lackluster response to President Obama's big speech to Congress this year, he's still going to have some momentum behind him. Now he might have some money too. Some of his supporters are forming a political action committee that would help his cause, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. (Hat-tip to Political Wire.) Jindal's people, unsurprisingly, say he doesn't have anything to do with the effort, and doesn't even support it. But that denial rings just a bit hollow, since his wife's uncle is involved.

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“I don't think we should question President Obama's patriotism or his intentions,” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Thursday. "I think Democrat or Republican, we should all agree that our current president, our former president would obviously want to do everything they could to keep us safe. Let's give the new administration a chance. Let's not question their intentions. Let's have a real debate on their policies."

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At the very least, this book shouldn't throw any cold water on the speculation that Jindal's going to run for president, something many conservatives would welcome. These days, a tome of some sort is de rigeur for anyone planning a campaign. (You can read our reviews of all the 2008 candidates' books here.)

Admittedly, 2010 is a little early for the book to come out, at least in comparison with the release dates for the books penned by the last cycle's hopefuls. Most of them timed their books for just a year before the election, though there are a couple notable exceptions, including now-President Obama's "The Audacity of Hope," which was released in 2006.

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