Republicans reacted swiftly and effectively to recast the opening day of their convention to reflect concern for potential victims of Hurricane Gustav.
But while they may have been prepared for bad weather, they weren’t ready for the revelation that John McCain’s newly minted, 44-year-old running mate was going to be a grandmother.
With the convention compressed to three hours of official business, delegates and political analysts buzzed about the announcement by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol was five months pregnant and would marry the father (See companion story).
At the Xcel Energy Convention Center, first lady Laura Bush and McCain’s wife, Cindy, took to the stage and asked for contributions for Gulf Coast recovery efforts.
“I would ask that each one of us commit to join together to aid those in need as quickly as possible,” Cindy McCain said. “As John has been saying for the last several days, this is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats.”
Republicans here appeared determined not to remind voters of the mistakes of 2005, when the Bush administration was skewered for not doing enough to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed more than 1,800 lives.
“There is a sense that we didn’t plan on this, we didn’t ask for this, but now let’s do what needs to be done, which is help the coast with recovery,” said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., whose Monday speech was scratched by the storm schedule.
Republicans had been energized by John McCain’s decision Friday to tap Palin as his running mate, but the news of the pregnancy threw cold water on the excitement, at least temporarily.
“The question is what did McCain know and when did he know it,” grumbled one stunned delegate who did not want his name used.
The highlights of Monday’s schedule were intended to be speeches by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. But neither appeared, citing the need to monitor Gustav, which weakened into a Category 2 storm that struck hardest in areas west of New Orleans.
The storm provided a convenient way to excuse Bush and Cheney from the convention as McCain and the rest of the Republican Party work to distance themselves from an administration with the lowest approval ratings in modern polling history.
The Republicans had little choice but to alter their convention plans, which were years and millions of dollars in the making, in order to avoid looking insensitive to hardship in the Gulf region, as Bush did three years ago when Katrina hit.
“The particular impact of Gustav on this convention has a lot to do with the shadow of Katrina and Bush,” said Andrew Rudalevige, political science professor at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania and a co-author of “The George W. Bush Legacy.”
The Katrina disaster, Rudalevige said, “is so crucially symbolic of Bush’s presidency that this is certainly meant to be a contrast.
