Storm forces GOP to scrap first day of convention

[WestVirginiaRebel]

AP:

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Republican officials abruptly announced plans Saturday evening to scrap the first day of their national convention, bowing to a threat posed by Tropical Storm Isaac, churning toward Florida.

"Our first priority is ensuring the safety of delegates, alternates, guests, members of the media attending the Republican National Convention, and citizens of the Tampa Bay area," party chairman Reince Priebus said in an emailed announcement that followed private conversations involving presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign, security officials and others.

Priebus added that forecasters have predicted that convention-goers "may encounter severe transportation difficulties due to sustained wind and rain" on Monday, the day the convention had been scheduled to open.

The announcement said that while the convention would officially be gaveled into session on Monday as scheduled, the day's events would be cancelled until Tuesday.

That meant Romney's formal nomination would be postponed by a day, from Monday to Tuesday, but the balance of the four days of political pageantry and speechmaking would go on as scheduled.

The former Massachusetts governor campaigned in battleground Ohio during the day, pledging to help women entrepreneurs and innovators who are eager to create small businesses and the jobs that go with them. It was an economy-themed countdown to the Republican National Convention taking shape in a city already bristling with security - and bracing for a possible hurricane.

"Women in this country are more likely to start businesses than men. Women need our help," said the Republican presidential challenger, eager to relegate recent controversy over abortion to the sidelines and make the nation's slow economic recovery the dominant issue of his convention week.

The former Massachusetts governor campaigned with running mate Paul Ryan in battleground Ohio as delegates arrived in Florida by the planeload. Across town, technicians completed the conversion of a hockey arena along Tampa Bay into a red, white and blue-themed convention hall.

The announcement made the GOP convention the party's second in a row to be disrupted by weather. Four years ago, the delegates gathered in St. Paul, Minn., but Hurricane Gustav, slamming the Gulf Coast, led to a one-day postponement.

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Better safe than sorry.

[logicnreason]

Once again, the dear OLD republicans shoot themselves in the foot! Wasn't it in '08 that this same thing happened??

 

Why oh why do the republicans continue to strangle themselves!?

 

Planning a convention in FL during the hurricane season.....TWICE??

 

Analagous to putting the superbowl in an outdoor statdium in the middle of January (can anyone say "icebowl"??)

Analogous to putting a child care center in the middle of a six lane freeway than complaning when a kid gets hit by a vehicle.

Analogous to building a huge city on the middle of an earthquake fault (so...LA and SF weres built by republicans??)

 

There were hundreds of cities the republicans could have picked to hold a safe convention.....hundreds!

 

Once again, the republicans are busy snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory.