Opening Day Is Abbreviated; Bush, Cheney Won't Appear

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McCain: 'Suspend RNC Activities Monday'

John McCain says Republicans will suspend most of the activities planned for Monday's opening of their national convention because of the threat of Hurricane Gustav. (Aug. 31)

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The prospect of another natural calamity on the order of Katrina was shaking up the presidential campaign and shifting the focus of the national media. The networks deployed their top anchors from Minnesota to the gulf region to report on the storm.

McCain and Palin traveled to Mississippi for a firsthand briefing from Gov. Haley Barbour (R) and talked by telephone with the Republican governors of Louisiana, Texas and Alabama. Afterward, McCain said he thought the coordination between federal and local authorities is "dramatically improved" since 2005, adding in St. Louis later that he expects that "the mistakes of Katrina" will not be repeated.

Obama, meanwhile, announced that his campaign will mobilize supporters from his enormous e-mail list to send money or enlist as volunteers once the impact of Hurricane Gustav becomes apparent. But the nominee said he will not be traveling to the region because he does not want to disrupt response efforts.

"We can activate an e-mail list of a couple million people who want to give back," Obama said. "I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary."

Briefing reporters in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center, where the four-day convention is still scheduled to begin Monday, GOP officials said all plans for the week are up in the air, save for events necessary in order to nominate McCain. According to party rules, they said, it is required that the convention proceed so that their nominees are placed on the ballot for the general election.

Campaign advisers made it clear that McCain would very much like to accept his party's nomination in person, though the candidate himself held out the possibility in an interview with NBC News that he might deliver his acceptance speech by satellite. Much depends, they said, on the impact of the storm.

The hurricane was also affecting other activities associated with the convention, such as the prodigious fundraising that is always a sideline to the event. Davis said party officials will be talking with their corporate supporters about directing some of the money raised here to hurricane relief. The party also made available a chartered plane to help delegates from Gulf Coast states return home if they wanted to, and officials will be looking for other ways to boost hurricane relief.

"Our top priority is to assist those who will be affected by Hurricane Gustav," Davis said. "This is not a time for politics or celebration; it is a time for us to come together as Americans and assist the residents of the gulf states."

Even as Davis refused to speculate on the political fallout from the reordering of the convention schedule, other GOP operatives were hopeful that it would not hurt in the end -- and that it might even help. "The first night is kind of a warmup," pollster David Winston said, adding that "the three big speeches" are those of the keynote speaker (former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani), the vice presidential nominee and the presidential nominee. "As long as those get full effect, then everything's fine," he said.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) sought to paint McCain's decision as yet more evidence of the Arizonan's patriotic selflessness. "John McCain's someone who has always put the country first. And clearly when you look at this potential disaster, putting the country first is the right thing to do," Boehner said on CNN's "Late Edition."

On ABC's "This Week," a top McCain ally, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), described the campaign's approach to the convention: "The goal is to make sure that you take the conservative approach, that we're not seen to be out of touch with people who could have everything they've worked for lost. And no one here, no one in Senator's McCain's inner circle, wants to do anything to be insensitive to what is coming. And I think what is coming is a major blow to the Gulf Coast."

Rich Galen, another veteran GOP operative, said McCain is already benefiting from the choice of Palin, which is going over well with the party faithful, and had little to gain from four full days of speeches. "From the purely political standpoint, this gives Republicans an opportunity to demonstrate to people that they have common sense," he said. "If in fact people are going to suffer horrors, we are not going to be up here in funny hats, dancing and making it like nothing is going on."

Barnes reported from Jackson, Miss. Washington Post staff writers Michael D. Shear and Shailagh Murray and washingtonpost.com staff writer Ben Pershing contributed to this report.