Former Gov. Buddy Roemer of Louisiana, currently making a dark-horse bid for the Republican presidential nomination, is looking to reach out to the Occupy Wall Street movement while speculation increases that he will launch a third party bid for the White House.

The team behind Texas Gov. Rick Perrys bid for the Republican presidential nomination scrambled on Thursday to recover from his performance in a debate in Michigan on Wednesday that was near-universally panned.

Saying he would eliminate three federal departments if he is elected president, Perry listed two of them -- Commerce and Education -- before admitting that he had forgotten one of them. Oops, Perry said after trying to remember the third one and failing.

A poll from Quinnipiac University released on Thursday found that President Barack Obama is upside down in Florida, which remains one of the crucial contests of the 2012 general election.

The poll of Florida voters was part of Quinnipiacs look at swing states, which also included Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The National Federation of Independent Business released a study on Wednesday that found that the health insurance tax (HIT), one of the key components of the federal health-care law backed by President Barack Obama, would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs across the Sunshine State in years to come.

The study found that the HIT will lead to increased costs of $5,000 per family by 2020 -- and cost the nation between 125,000 jobs and 249,000 jobs by 2021. Fifty-nine percent of those job losses are expected to come at the expense of small businesses.