Tropical Storm Isaac has forced the cancellation of the opening day of festivities for the Republican National Convention in Tampa Monday.
In a statement Saturday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the threat of Isaac is just too grave to go ahead with the opening night of the convention.
The convention will convene on Monday and will immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, Priebus announced in the statement. “After consulting with Governor [Rick] Scott, NOAA and local emergency management officials, we are optimistic that we will begin an exciting, robust convention that will nominate the Romney-Ryan ticket.”
Romney will likely now be officially nominated on Tuesday, officials said on a conference call with reporters Saturday. Organizers had originally scheduled the delegate roll call vote for opening day in a bid to foster party unity and said that they’ll now move that plan forward a day.
Losing Monday is not a worst-case scenario. The national networks had already said they weren’t going to air any of the primetime speeches on the opening night of the convention live, forcing officials to move Ann Romney’s speech from its original Monday slot to Tuesday.
Mike Huckabee, the most prominent defender of Todd Akin in the GOP, was scheduled to speak on the opening night of the RNC. So far there’s no word what will happen to speeches scheduled for Monday, but officials said on the call that a revised schedule could be distributed as soon as Sunday.
Russ Schriefer, a Romney strategist, said on the call that he believes the full slate, or close to it, can be condensed into the remaining time. “We’re hoping to get as many of the speakers as we have been announcing [and] … pack them into three days instead of four,” he said.
“we think that we can absolutely do it in three”
