Republican strategists fear the pairing of storm damage, and convention revelry
With hurricane Issac threatening the Florida coast, the Republican National convention in Tampa may be facing more setbacks, reports the New York Times. The convention, which was postponed 24 hours after strong winds started to take down security tents, was scheduled to start Monday. Organizers are now scrambling to shorten the highly publicized event; many speeches by prominent Republicans have been cut short, others emoved entirely.
A number of news organizations have spent time reporting on Issac that Republicans had hoped would be spent covering the convention, and Republican strategies are worried about paired images of convention revelry and storm damage.
While the storm appears to have largely missed Tampa, should it hit Louisiana or Mississippi, it would revive memories of the Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans almost seven years ago. Republican response to Katrina was widely considered the domestic low point of the Bush presidency.