CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama consoled victims of Hurricane Isaac along the flooded Louisiana coast on Monday and vowed government officials would find out "what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again."
At times like these, "nobody's a Democrat or a Republican, we're all just Americans looking out for one another," the president said after inspecting some of the damage inflicted by the storm and hugging some of its victims.
Campaign rival Mitt Romney paid a similarly nonpartisan visit last Friday to the flooded region but made no reference at the time to federal aid.
Obama's trip to La Place, La., was a televised interlude in the rough and tumble of the political campaign, four days after Romney accepted his party's presidential nomination at the GOP Convention in Tampa, Fla., and three days before the president is nominated by Democratic delegates in Charlotte.