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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
Hurricane Isaac may have spared Tampa its most severe hit, but the
With all but the ceremonial acceptance speech by presidential nominee Mitt Romney remaining as important convention business, the party must come to terms with the fact that, like Romney himself, it has accepted the image of a political entity willing to face the electorate in unvarnished conservative garb.
The remaking of the previously moderate Massachusetts governor has provided a veneer of party unity that has not quite been achieved. Romney still boasts of having provided what the Obama camp gleefully calls the state model for its national health care reforms, blurring the
Republicans came to Tampa temporarily diverted from Romney's focus on saving the stalled economy, thanks to the flash flood Missouri Rep. Todd Akin caused by offering his absurd rationale against an exception for rape in any ban on abortions. Romney, after first limiting his response to saying Akin was wrong, finally called on him to withdraw his bid for the
Meanwhile, the party's platform committee meeting in Tampa had already included in its 2012 abortion plank the selfsame policy of no exception for rape. Romney gamely insisted that was the party's position on the issue but not his, while also insisting that his devotion to the true conservative faith remained steadfast. For a party already struggling with a wide gap of support among women that favors Obama, the re-emergence of the abortion issue was untimely, to say the least.
Inevitably, many Republicans are second-guessing the party's decision to hold its convention in Florida unusually late in August with hurricane season arriving. The news media pack in Tampa has taken note of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans just as Isaac closed in on the still-recovering city.
President Obama wasted no time declaring Louisiana eligible for federal disaster relief. He can be counted on to behave in politically advantageous contrast to George W. Bush's botched initial response to the Katrina calamity.
As Obama has that convenient way to occupy himself during the Republican convention, Romney back in Tampa still has the task of coping with the challenge that has plagued him throughout his long slog in the
In the run-up to the convention, Romney finally began in his fashion to let his hair down in television interviews. In one, he invited
At the same time, this troublesome identity difficulty has inevitably put more attention on Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose earnestness on the stump clearly has heartened Republican deficit hawks, especially those in tea party ranks.
Ryan's presence on the ticket, however, has also put a spotlight on the
For all the professional politicians' talk of the national convention as an opportunity to provide a boost in the polls for the party standard-bearer, the record is mixed at best. In a race that most surveys say remains extremely tight, Romney's acceptance speech Thursday could be the most important of his political life. To date, nothing he has said about himself seems to have made him the object of wide Republican affection.
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Hurricane Isaac's Impact on the GOP | Politics
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