Storm may alter convention course
WASHINGTON, Pa. - John McCain voiced concern for Gulf Coast residents fleeing the path of Hurricane Gustav yesterday as he reintroduced running mate Sarah Palin in a key battleground state.
"I would like, obviously, to keep in our thoughts and prayers the people on the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans," McCain said, recalling the devastation New Orleans suffered after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city three years ago. The Arizona senator appeared onstage with Palin at a baseball park outside Pittsburgh.
But the Palin rollout threatened to be overshadowed by Gustav, with the powerful storm likely to change the course of the Republican convention scheduled to open tomorrow in St. Paul. Gulf state governors could decide to remain at home. It could also affect the opening-night address by President Bush. Gustav's projected path suggests it could make landfall late tomorrow on Louisiana's central coast.
Earlier, in a TV interview, McCain suggested that convention plans may well be altered if Gustav continues on its projected path.
"You know it just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster." He commented in an interview taped for "Fox News Sunday."
McCain aide Mark Salter said the campaign is drafting contingency plans for what to do depending on when and where the storm hits. But he cautioned that it didn't mean the gathering would be canceled.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bill Clinton also paid tribute to one of his family's closest advocates and advisers.
"If this work was hard or overwhelming, if she ever felt any loneliness in so often being the first, you never would've known it," Obama said.
"Because Stephanie was not a complainer. She always had that big smile, even when times were tough. Self-pity was never an option as far as Stephanie was concerned."
Tubbs Jones, 58, died Aug. 20 from a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm. She was the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, as well as the state's first black female to be a county judge and prosecutor.
Tubbs Jones tirelessly worked to help Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid, which Obama acknowledged.
"The mayor said she was not a fair-weather friend. I certainly know what that means," said Clinton.
Obama said loyalty kept Tubbs Jones in Clinton's corner.
"During this most recent contest, Stephanie and I started off on different sides and she - we would see each other and she just said to me, 'This is what it means to be a friend for me,' " he said. "And all I could say is, 'I understand.' "
Tubbs Jones represented Ohio's heavily Democratic 11th district for five terms. She was the first black woman to sit on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and the first to work as a common pleas judge in Ohio.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An ad released by the campaign yesterday acknowledged McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate, but its images and words leave no doubt that Obama wants the public to judge McCain by the policies of President Bush.
The ad, called "No Change," began running nationally on cable television as Republicans gathered in St. Paul for their convention this week. The spot avoids direct criticism of Palin while proclaiming that McCain offers no change from an unpopular president.
Meanwhile, Obama jumped to his biggest lead since late July in public opinion polls, after his nomination acceptance speech Thursday. He led McCain 49 to 41 percent in the most recent Gallup Poll daily tracking survey.
In a separate USA Today/ Gallup poll, about 40 percent of respondents said they consider Palin qualified to be president , the lowest level since President George H.W. Bush picked Indiana Senator Dan Quayle in 1988.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 