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Not every detail is nailed down yet, but the Republican National Convention is going full speed ahead tonight, having weathered a big course change in response to Hurricane Gustav.
``We lost a lot of opportunities to communicate last night'' with the cancellation of the convention's kick-off program of speeches, said Rick Davis, campaign manager for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Some of those opportunities ``will be lost in the annals of convention history,'' Davis told reporters this morning, but others will be spliced into the Tuesday night program that campaign leaders finished cobbling together before sunrise today.
President Bush won't make it to St. Paul but is tentatively slated to address the convention via satellite hookup between 9.30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern time -- a pruned-back appearance that may actually make it easier for McCain to set himself apart from the unpopular chief executive.
``It would have been nice'' for Republican delegates to see the president of their own party address the convention one last time, Rhode Island delegation chairman Bob Watson said. But in terms of raw politics, the absence of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney from the convention may help McCain, said Watson, the minority leader of the state House of Representatives. Democrats have made clear that Barack Obama's fall campaign will rest heavily on the premise that McCain is running for Bush's ``third term'' in the White House; Republicans are anxious to rebut that proposition.
On tap for the prime viewing hour of 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. are two close friends of McCain, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for president, and a former Democrat well-known to Rhode Islanders, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Convention organizers said Thompson's theme is ``The Courage and Service of John McCain.''
Lieberman, who lost the Democratic party's nomination to an anti-war candidate in 2006, was reelected as an independent and has become a regular on the McCain campaign circuit. His topic: ``The Original Maverick, John McCain.''
Looking ahead to Wednesday, Davis said that the swirl of headlines about McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, means that -- with the possible exception of a debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, ``there isn't anything more compelling'' on her fall schedule than her acceptance speech here in St. Paul.
Palin's speech will give voters a chance ``to see beyond some of the media fog'' around her daughter's pregnancy and other emerging controversies.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Rhode Island delegation and the campaign at large touted the convention's good works on behalf of Gulf Coast residents hurt by the hurricane.
``Millions of dollars were raised yesterday,'' said Davis.
