GOP Is Watching Hurricane Closely

Workers make last-minute adjustments to at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., in preparation for the Republican National Convention. (By Justin Sullivan -- Getty Images)

In addition to the humanitarian dimensions, Gustav is presenting a huge political challenge to the GOP, which suffered badly from the widespread perception that the Bush administration botched the response to Katrina, which made landfall almost exactly three years ago. Mindful of the potential repercussions, the Republican governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are passing up prized speaking slots or abandoning plans to attend the convention to take care of hurricane preparations and response at home.

McCain still plans to use the convention to introduce his new running mate to the nation and to launch himself into the fall campaign. "McCain needs a good convention. Gustav is making that tough," said Ed Rogers, a prominent GOP strategist and lobbyist who is close to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

"Everybody is aware of the devastating TV split-screen potential here," Rogers added. "The affected governors . . . are all major-leaguers with close ties to McCain. The best political antennas in the party are tuned in to this."

In a statement Saturday afternoon, Republican National Convention President Maria Cino said: "Like all Americans, our prayers are with those who will be affected by Hurricane Gustav. We continue to closely monitor the movement of the storm and are considering necessary contingencies. We are in communication with the Gulf state governors to make sure the convention is taking all the appropriate steps as the Hurricane progresses. The safety of our affected delegations is our first priority and preparing for Gustav comes before anything else."

McCain and Palin spent their second day together on the campaign trail Saturday, attending a rally under a blazing sun and brilliant skies in western Pennsylvania, moving from the Ohio basketball arena where she was introduced as his running mate Friday to a minor league ballpark in Washington County, Pa., home of the Washington Wild Things. There were McCain-Palin T-shirts and a scattering of red Women for McCain signs in the crowd, but the rhetoric was a carbon copy of Friday's announcement.

The campaign is moving slowly in introducing Palin on the national stage. Saturday's events included a stop at a diner in Pittsburgh and an early evening event at Consol Energy Park, which holds about 5,000 people, making it one of McCain's bigger events.

McCain, in a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and Palin, in a peach jacket and black skirt, took the stage with their families. Introduced by former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, who had been passed over in the vice presidential search, the two offered decidedly nonpartisan speeches heavy on words such as "reform."

At least once, the rhetoric was a bit more inclusive than the crowd seemed to like.

When Palin repeated a line from Friday's announcement about the "grace" Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had shown in her presidential bid, some attendees booed. When she got to the payoff line -- "We can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all" -- the crowd cheered and chanted "Sar-ah, Sar-ah."

Palin presented herself as a fighter of corruption in her home state of Alaska, who passed ethics legislation and fought "the good ol' boys." She said that when skyrocketing oil prices filled her state's coffers, she returned the money "directly to the people of Alaska."

She said she would take "our message of reform to every voter of every background in every political party or no party at all."

"No leader in America," she added, "presents so clear a threat to business as usual in Washington as John S. McCain."

Staff writers Michael D. Shear, Juliet Eilperin and Paul Kane contributed to this report.