Hurricane Gustav forces change of plan for GOP

ST. PAUL, Minn.

On the fly, Republicans are improvising their national convention script in response to Hurricane Gustav, storming its way toward the Gulf Coast.

At the direction of presumptive GOP presidential candidate John McCain, the first day of a detailed four-day calendar of speeches was set aside. Much of today's convention program will be stripped down to only those elements that are required to convene the gathering, GOP officials said Sunday.

All the political speeches today, including planned remarks from President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake of Norfolk, have been canceled, though officials hope to reschedule some if circumstances permit.

"This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans," McCain said Sunday via satellite from St. Louis.

McCain, a senator from Arizona, urged party faithful to "take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats."

Hurricane Gustav, barreling toward the Gulf Coast, was a Category 3 storm Sunday night.

Officials say it's unclear how the remaining three days of the GOP convention will be affected.

"There's no pattern to how we will react to this other than using all our resources and skills to try and put on the best possible convention that we can," said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, who noted that judgments about the remaining schedule will be made "day to day."

"I cannot make promises beyond tomorrow of what is going to be in the program," Davis said during a press conference at the Xcel Energy Center.

Before Sunday's announcement, Republican delegates were scheduled to formally select McCain as their presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as their vice presidential nominee Wednesday. Palin was to give her acceptance speech that evening and McCain was to deliver his Thursday night.

Davis said speculation that McCain might skip the convention altogether because of the storm was premature.

However, McCain said in an interview with NBC that it was possible he would make his acceptance speech not from the convention podium but via satellite from the Gulf Coast.

Longtime convention observer Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor, said such sudden changes to a national convention because of external events are virtually unprecedented in American history.

The closest parallel, he said, is in 1944, when the conventions "were much more subdued than usual, with less partying, due to World War II."

Sunday's announcement concluded a weekend of winging it for Republicans that began Friday when McCain confounded pundits and party leaders by naming Palin as his running mate.

After-hours convention receptions were still held here Sunday as scheduled, though the mood appeared reserved.

Davis said the McCain campaign will organize fundraising efforts to assist people affected by the hurricane and may enlist help from the corporate sponsors of convention events.

The campaign also is providing air transportation to delegates from Gulf Coast states who need to return to the area to evacuate family members. McCain's staff also is considering whether it can, or will, suspend some political ads.

"We want to be respectful of the situation that exists in the Gulf," Davis said.

McCain was praised for suspending some convention activities, but some say it could come with a political toll.

If Gustav brings major destruction, the convention could be further curtailed, depriving McCain and the Republican Party of the spotlight that Democrats got last week in Denver, Sabato said.

Virginia's GOP delegates said McCain made the right call.

"It's the natural human reaction, and it's being driven by our candidate, John McCain," said Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a convention delegate who recently returned from helping rebuild a Louisiana home destroyed by Katrina.

Lynchburg delegate Wendell Walker said that empathic response is to be expected from a man who was once a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"If anybody knows about suffering," he said, "it's certainly John McCain."

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com