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Monday, September 1, 2008

Gustav and McCain
Gustav reigns
What if they gave a convention and nobody came? Or, rather, they held a convention and all of the delegates showed, much of the press, but everyone’s attention was turned elsewhere. This is precisely what has happened at the 2008 Republican National Convention. The world, or rather the Americans interested in the political process, were supposed to be tuned to St. Paul but nature had other plans. The forces of nature have trumped the political forces. Hurricane Gustav is either a blessing or a curse for the Republicans depending on how you look on it. On the one hand, the storm, downgraded to a category 2, called President Bush and Vice President Cheney away from the Xcel Energy Center. Both men were scheduled to speak tonight. Bush’s national approval rating is 28 percent, though it is 63 percent among Republicans according to the latest CBS/New York Times Poll. McCain has painted himself as a maverick. His relationship with the president and vice president has been rocky. One of the big dramas of this convention was how the hall would deal with an unpopular leader. On the other hand, the storm is bound to recall the failures of the Bush administration three years ago with Katrina. With more air time to fill than ever with the leaders’ absence, television commentators will switch back and forth between the storm, past footage and the convention center. Note that CNN’s Anderson Cooper, NBC’s Brian Williams, ABC’s Charlie Gibson and CBS’ Katie Couric all flew south with the storm. And, if that wasn’t enough, Monday was marked by an unplanned baby eruption. Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant. She plans to keep the baby, marry the father and, yes, John McCain knew when he tapped Palin to be his running mate. Now, in addition to all the other unusual achievement on this vice-presidential candidate’s resume -- former beauty queen, television sportscaster -- she can add 44-year-old grandmother.
Posted by Karen Heller @ 2:11 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Karen Heller
This week Karen Heller is live-blogging the Republican convention in true blogger style - at home, surfing the Web and watching TV. She's covered five other conventions. Three were Republican, two were Democratic. Read all of Populist here.

Karen Heller has interviewed Philip Roth and Zsa Zsa Gabor, spent time with Pink and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the celebrated and the exemplary unsung. She's covered Miss America and political conventions. She's been a provocative voice at The Inquirer for nearly 20 years, garnering awards for criticism, feature writing and investigative reporting, and was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in commentary.

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