30 August 2008

Postponing the GOP convention is a bad idea

Updated. Hurricane Gustav, now a Category 4 storm and picking up steam, remains aimed at the gulf coast and is expected to make landfall sometime Labor Day (Monday). Residents in the area have begun a reasonably orderly evacuation, indicating lessons learned from Katrina are being observed, and state and federal officials are conducting the before the storm activities they failed to conduct three years ago.

Meanwhile, John McCain, the presumptive GOP candidate, says postponing the Republican National Convention, scheduled to convene in Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Labor Day, is under consideration. Why? As reported by The Politico’s Mike Allen:

Minneapolis and St. Paul are a thousand-plus miles north of New Orleans. Whether the convention — a serious as well as festive event — begins on schedule or is postponed until after the Hurricane blows out makes absolutely no difference to the ability of the federal government and the state governments in the area to prepare for the hurricane and deal with its consequences.

In his comments, McCain is sending two messsages: (1) the convention just a holiday frolic, sort of a clean Tailhook Convention, not an assembly that conducts serious business essential to the nation, and (2) the United States cannot deal with a hurricane and nominate a Republican for President at the same time.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Very few — virtually none, in all probability — of the delegates, even those from the gulf coast, are critical emergency services workers who must stay home to deal with Gustav. Some delegates from the gulf states would be unable to attend, but that would not prevent a quorum. And President Bush, and Republican governors such as Florida’s Charlie Crist, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, can, if they wish, address the convention — with considerable drama — by video link. They’ll have time for that if their hurricane preparation operations are properly organized.

McCain may view the convention as just a gathering of Good Time Charlies, but besides formally nominating the GOP’s candidates for President and Vice President, it adopts a platform. One expects that most delegates will stay sober while tending to that business. There are various ways to keep the delegates apprised of the hurricane; announcements and comments on the storm can be delivered from the podium by the presiding officer. Proceeding as planned, with an appropirate atmosphere of seriousness and purpose, would remind the world of what America can do.

So, what’s really going on? Most likely, there are two unspoken reasons some Republicans are talking about postponing the convention: (1) they wish to highlight what they expect to be a highly effective, unKatrinaesque response to Gustav that proves Republicans can govern competently, and (2) they don’t want Gustav to divert attention from McCain’s campaign kickoff.

Update 1. Reality seems to be sinking in. The Associated Press is reporting that the convention may go on: