Country first

With all eyes on Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf Coast, John McCain yesterday announced that the RNC has been amended to only conduct the official business of the convention. McCain asked the RNC to take off its "Republican hat" for its "American hat" in order to put the intesests of the country ahead of partisan politics.The limited session will cover the opening gavel, rules, and any other offical business for the Republicans to offically begin the process of nominating John McCain and Sarah Palin. Depending on the severity of Gustav, the RNC hopes to resume normal operations on Tuesday...Suspending operations today may be a silver lining since neither President Bush or Vice President Cheney will address the convention. As you know, the Obama campaign is trying to associate McCain/Palin as four more years of George W. Bush...What's uncertain is who will speak at the convention when/if its resumes and when...A new CNN poll this weekend reveals that Senator Obama leads Senator McCain 49% to 48%. This latest poll does take into account the Obama speech and the Palin announcement. Apparently, Obama received only a marginal bounce out of the Democrat's convention which was muted by the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate as well as the build up to Gustav...In another poll conducted by CNN, 75% of respondents thought McCain scaled back the RNC for "political purposes"...McCain and Palin will campaign as reformers as they try to change the face and direction of the Republican party...Remember, it was 44 years ago almost to the day the Republicans nominated another maverick Senator from the state of Arizona in Barry Goldwater. It was Goldwater, first, followed by Ronald Reagan, that changed the direction of the Republican party to its more conservative foundation.

There are 65 days until the presidential election. And, it's been 2,746 days since there's been a terrorist attack on US soil. Good day and God bless!