Issac: Maybe Mother Nature is Telling the GOP Something

     I kind of chalked it up to a good line when Krugman suggested it last week. I had to laugh when Rush Limbaugh claimed that Issac was all part of the President's fiendish strategy.

     Apparently now, however, there may be some real worry about Issac ending the whole convention and a feeling that if it doesn't the optics may still make it a dead loss.

    "The Boston Globe's Glen Johnson puts on the board the idea of a fully cancelled Tampa convention, explaining the serious anxiety behind the Romney camp's public professions of confidence that they'll move ahead:

But the series of conversations - occurring just hours later - made clear that the Romney staff also realizes that Isaac’s potentially horrid wrath could eclipse any bunting-draped imagery they generate inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
That would render the whole convention exercise a net loss for their candidate, rather than a positive force propelling him into the fall campaign.
Consider for a moment the juxtaposition of President Obama marshaling his administration’s forces and personally visiting New Orleans or Mobile, Ala., in the aftermath of the storm’s landfall, all while the convention hall is filled with delegates dressed in funny hats listening to partisan speeches. ...
One Romney adviser said he even expected the television networks would acknowledge their civic duty by offering Romney a prime-time speaking opportunity, should the GOP be forced to cancel its already-truncated convention.

       "The official word is still full speed ahead starting Tuesday morning, and at a Bloomberg event Monday both Ed Gillespie and Gail Gitcho delivered that message."

      http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/08/organizers-tampa-schedule-at-isaacs-mercy-133262.html?hp=l1_b1

      Look, having said all that, I got to imagine the chances of it being cancelled are remote. While the optics could be bad, surely missing the whole convention is unthinkable? Especially in the case of Romney who still at this late date the American people don't feel they know.

      Nor is this the feeling only of Americans as the Economist's devastating critique of Romney last week shows. 'Americans will not vote for this man, and neither for that matter would this newspaper.'

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-economist-isnt-sold-on-romney-either.html

     Still, I would be shocked if the optics are so bad that it would outweigh losing one of their only chances to finally try to give is a sense of who Romney is. If not now, when?

      Having said that I've been wrong before about the GOP. I never thought Romney would actually go Paul Ryan either. I was pleasantly surprised then.

      In this case though the optics could really be bad. There's the spectre of a split screen with one side of the GOP convention wearing funny hats and listening to partisan speeches and the other side of the victims of Issac-which right now they say is following the path of Hurricane Katrina.

      "The head of Florida’s GOP said Monday the “optics” of the Republican National Convention will be on a “day-to-day basis” as Tropical Storm Isaac moves past Tampa and head toward New Orleans.
“From an optics and a theater perspective, this is going to have to be on a day-to-day basis,” Republican Party of Florida Chair Lenny Curry said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “We have to be mindful, obviously, of people’s homes and people’s lives.”

      "Isaac’s track is closely mirroring the path of Hurricane Katrina from seven years ago, and it’s possible Isaac could strike New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina’s landfall. Earlier in the show, CNN reporter Jessica Yellin had raised the possibility of a split-screen showing Republican delegates celebrating in Tampa on one half, and the other half showing a storm bombarding the Gulf Coast."

      "Already, some GOP Gulf Coast officials have cancelled their plans to attend the convention."


      Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80184.html#ixzz24kmZKTFj