Storm threatens to steal Republican election spotlight

Tropical Storm Isaac threatened to steal the spotlight from the Republican presidential convention as officials announced a squeezed, three-day schedule but insisted the show would go on.

Mitt Romney had been due to be formally nominated to take on President Barack Obama in the November 6 election with a delegate roll call on Monday morning, kicking off four days of raucous speeches by party grandees and rising stars.

That procedure will now take place on Tuesday after Monday's program was repackaged into the tighter schedule due to the storm.

Party officials stressed that the prime nighttime speaking slots on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, including speeches by Romney, his wife Ann and running-mate Paul Ryan, remained unchanged.

"We feel good that we're going to go ahead and do the roll call on Tuesday," Romney campaign aide Russ Schriefer told journalists, expressing confidence that Monday's "We can do better" message could be incorporated into the other days.

Tropical Storm Isaac is forecast to miss the convention site of Tampa, but expected to strengthen to a damaging category two hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before smashing into Louisiana later in the week near New Orleans.

Pressed on whether they had a back-up plan if a Hurricane Isaac wreaked havoc during the convention in Louisiana, party officials said they remained flexible but refused to offer details of any contingencies.

"We are obviously monitoring," said Schriefer. "Our concern has to be with the people who are in the path of the storm."

Those words were echoed by the candidate himself, who must tread a fine line between preventing the storm from stealing the limelight of his all-important nomination moment, while displaying concern for those in harm's way.

Preparing for his convention speech in New Hampshire, Romney said: "I hope everybody's fine there. I'm concerned about the people that are going to be affected by it."

Asked whether he was worried the storm could derail the convention, the candidate replied: "It'll be a great convention."

The events have raised ironic cries that God must be a Democrat as they echo a similar scenario in 2008, when Republicans canceled nearly all their programming on the first day of their convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota due to Hurricane Gustav.

Isaac, which was approaching hurricane strength as it barreled past the Florida Keys into the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, has already claimed seven lives in Haiti.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/storm-lashes-florida-delaying-republican-convention-161810949.html

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