Gustav's winds and McCain's plane reach all the way to St. Paul

ST. PAUL -- Hurricane Gustav reached to the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center today, where Louisiana’s delegation to the Republican National Convention here crowded into a Crowne Plaza Hotel lobby.

Having just arrived, some were staying. Others were planning to return home. All were checking in back home on their friends and relatives.

Before coming to Minnesota, Lloyd and Jill Harsch had cleared out their kitchen pantry and refrigerator, boarded up their home, and carried boxes of photographs to the second story of their home in Gentilly Parish of New Orleans.

“I’d love to be home," said Lloyd. "But if I were going back to New Orleans, I’d be arrested.” The 47-year-old alternate delegate added, “I figured that right now, I’m at the best place I can be.”

Others cheered at news that the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign had chartered a DC-9 plane to fly members of the Gulf Coast delegations to Jackson, Miss.

Vickie and Rhett Davis, delegates from Walker, La., had left their four children with Vickie’s 83-year-old mother, who is healing from a broken foot. When they learned about the plane, they called Vickie’s mother who, with the help of friends and relatives, bundled the children into a car and raced to meet the plane in Jackson.

“I don’t want them down there, by themselves, sitting in a house for day after day with no power or maybe no water,” said Vickie, a 48-year-old stay-at-home mom who runs her own accounting firm.

“My daughter’s birthday is next week, and the best gift I can think to give is to bring her back here with us –- and make sure the whole family’s safe.”

-- P.J. Huffstutter

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Sarah Palin's not on the Sunday talk shows? That's a plus, says John McCain

On July 25, 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush announced that he had selected the head of his vice-presidential vetting committee, Dick Cheney, as his running mate.  Five days later, the newly named (but not yet nominated) No. 2 appeared on all five Sunday talk shows:  ABC’s "This Week," CBS’ "Face the Nation," CNN’s "Late Edition," "Fox News Sunday" and NBC’s "Meet the Press."

By contrast, this year’s GOP vice-presidential selection, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was nowhere to be found on any of the shows this morning.  In fact -- unlike her Democratic counterpart, talk show veteran Sen. Joe Biden -- she’s never appeared on any of the Sunday gabfests.

That’s no big deal, says onetime GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson. Asked today by CNN's Wolf Blitzer about criticisms of Palin's minimal experience with national security and foreign policy issues, the former Tennessee senator responded:

“Well, Wolf, I hate to break this to you, but you don't get national security experience by being on Sunday talk shows, and that's where a lot of these fellows get theirs.”

And her lack of face time with Blitzer, Bob Schieffer of CBS, Tim Russert or Tom Brokaw of NBC, Chris Wallace of Fox or George Stephanopoulos of ABC doesn’t bother the guy whose opinion matters most. This morning, John McCain had this exchange with Wallace on “Fox News Sunday”:

WALLACE:  Do you think she will help you with women and especially with disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters?

MCCAIN:  I think she's going to help me with all Americans. I think that the response that we're getting from men, women, young, old, because they want us to change America.  They want us to change it. They're sick and tired of business as usual and inside the Beltway kind of thing.

You know, one commentator said, well, she has never been on "Meet the Press."

WALLACE:  I didn't say that.

MCCAIN: Well, I hope that she's on your program first. No, she doesn't live inside the Beltway. She doesn't -- she and her husband don't go to the Georgetown cocktail parties.  But they do live a life of a wonderful family. He's -- they've had a small business. They are just really good, down-to-earth people who understand the challenges that we face.

So in all due respect to my friends that say that she has never been on some of the inside-the-Beltway activities, I say, "Thank God."

-- Leslie Hoffecker

Photo credit: Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images

Hurricane Gustav roils the GOP convention

ST. PAUL — With Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf Coast, Republicans have canceled all but the bare minimum requirements for Monday's session of their convention, as GOP presidential candidate John McCain called on delegates to turn their attention to people likely to be displaced.

Speaking this afternoon by video from St. Louis to reporters massed here for the Republican National Convention, McCain said it was necessary to “take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats.”

It's uncertain whether McCain will appear at the convention — that depends on the severity of the storm — although party rules require the delegates to formally nominate him and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, speaking in St. Paul, said the Monday session would be designed to comply with requirements of calling the convention to order. It is impossible to plan beyond that, he added.

Davis and McCain both urged delegates and others gathering here to donate to relief efforts. The McCain campaign is chartering a DC-9 to fly delegates from the Gulf Coast back home; about a dozen have taken them up on that offer so far. Davis said some would be returning with their family members.

“Pray for the best and prepare for the worst,” McCain said. He had spoken earlier Sunday with the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, the states that could be in harm's way.

He said that although some communications systems appeared to be lacking, the response would far exceed what the federal government had done in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago. At that time, McCain was sharply critical of the federal response.

“Of course, we have to do away with party politics and act as Americans,” McCain said this afternoon. “It is a time for action.”

-- Dan Morain

Photo: McCain campaign manager Rick Davis announces the change in plans for Monday's convention session. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images

Michael Moore backtracks on Gustav and the GOP

Friday, we noted Michael Moore's comments on MSNBC describing the timing of Hurricane Gustav (during the Republican convention) as divine intervention.

Today, Moore -- who almost immediately came under fire for his remarks -- responded by releasing an "open letter to God."

In it, the filmmaker urged the Almighty: "So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It's done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again."

The letter is below ...

Two California GOP delegates -- excited over McCain, worried about Sarah Palin

ST. PAUL -- Karen Bonadio is a rare species -- a Republican from Los Angeles.

And as she and her father, Col. Robert A. Bonadio, USMC retired, traveled here for the scheduled Monday opening of the Republican National Convention, both delegates were excited -- and both a little worried.

They were excited by the prospect of naming Sen. John McCain as the Republican presidential nominee, so excited that they donned McCain buttons even before they boarded their flight at LAX so anyone in the airport would know their candidate in case they cared, which they surely must, though no one said anything.

"He's a great man," they agreed. Karen Bonadio, in fact, changed her voter registration from Decline to State to Republican so she could vote for McCain in the primary.

The pair actually met the senator recently and have a tarmac group photo to show anyone who doesn't ask to see it. McCain, it seems, was so effectively responsive to Mr. Bonadio's years-long effort with....

The convention dilemmas — and opportunities — for George Bush and John McCain

UPDATED Information included below.

ST. PAUL — What precisely does an outgoing president tell his party's national convention about himself that members haven't already heard several times and still might listen to, even if it's about the party's new nominee for president whom the current president doesn't really get along with all that well and thinks has run an unfocused campaign, although they both need to look like party loyalists without getting too close to or distant from each other because the current president is so unpopular and might hurt the other guy's chances of becoming the new president, which both understand?

Well, you schedule the old president, who's actually almost a decade younger than the wannabe president, to speak on the first night of the convention here, along with his popular wife.

And you schedule the new guy to speak on the very last night four days later, to give the most important speech of his career, accepting the party's nomination and standing with his pretty wife and his ...

A look at Sarah Palin, fundraiser

As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin starts her career on the national political stage -- and joins the frenzied chase for big-time bucks -- she brings a fundraising past to the table that is modest (to say the least).

Campaign finance reports show she raised $1.43 million from 2001 to 2006 -- less than what a winning race for a seat in the California state Assembly easily could cost.

She raised most of her total --$1.36 million -- in 2005 and 2006, when she was running for governor.

Palin has not raised money since becoming her state's chief executive. Under Alaska law, she cannot troll for dollars until next May, and at that point only if she declares for reelection (though if all goes well for her in November, all that will be moot).

Since John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate, Times staff writer Ben Welsh, researcher Maloy Moore and data analyst Sandra Poindexter have been gathering data from the Alaska Public Offices Commission’s website. A review of her campaign finance reports shows her biggest single source of money has been the Republican Party: $75,000.

People involved in the fisheries industry — her husband is a commercial fisherman — have contributed at least $70,000.

People listing their business as real estate have donated $46,000. Attorneys accounted for at least $30,000, and lobbyists donated $9,800.

Palin, who favors opening a part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development (a move McCain opposes), has taken about $13,500 from people involved with oil firms.

Although she is a Republican, Palin has friends in organized labor. Unions and self-identified union members have donated $17,000 to her campaigns.

Two days before McCain named her as his running make, Palin attended an AFL-CIO convention in Alaska and signed legislation ...

Campaign '08, The Movie: Will Smith as Obama? Richard Dreyfuss as McCain?

The who-saw-it-coming pick of Sarah Palin to fill out the Republican presidential ticket was simply the latest twist in a presidential race that long since strained credibility.

As our colleague Michelle Maltais put it to us in an e-mail, "A screenwriter couldn't come up with a more riveting script than Campaign '08. So I hope Aaron Sorkin is making copious notes and optioning this storyline that's playing out before us."

That got Maltais meditating on how she would cast this movie (that seems to come naturally to folks who grow up in and around L.A.).  Here's what she came up with, complete with occasional commentary (don't worry, we didn't recognize all the names either ... but that's what Google is for):

Barack Obama -- Will Smith (he already has the ears).

Michelle Obama -- Kimberly Elise or maybe Jada Pinkett Smith.

John McCain -- Richard Dreyfuss.

Cindy McCain -- Joan Allen.

Joe Biden -- David Strathairn or Tommy Lee Jones with longer hair.

Palin -- Tina Fey, Megan Mullally (can't take credit for that; "Daily Show").

Hillary Clinton -- Emma Thompson (she did so well in "Primary Colors").

Bill Clinton -- Beau Bridges? Hmmm, maybe Jeff would be better...

As always, The Ticket welcomes reader input and alternate suggestions.

-- Don Frederick

Hawaii, Alaska and the presidential race: History will be made

The obvious historical implications of John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as a running mate, hot on the heels of Barack Obama officially securing the Democratic presidential nomination, were quickly and duly noted: One way or the other, a demographic breakthrough will occur in this year's election.

Less noted was this: For the first time since they joined the union not quite 50 years ago, the nation's two most far-flung -- and youngest -- states each have a horse in the White House race.

Obama's native Hawaii had been a state slightly less than two years when he was born there on Aug. 4, 1961 (its admission date: Aug. 21, 1959).

Palin isn't an Alaskan by birth, but she came pretty darn close -- she was an infant when her family moved there from Idaho in 1964. At that point, it had been a state for about five and a half years (admission date: Jan. 3, 1959).

Either way, a milestone will be achieved for a state never before represented at the highest levels of the executive branch.

-- Don Frederick

Michael Moore links Hurricane Gustav, GOP convention

Yet another lesson in what should be a simple truth -- if one must wish ill of one's political foes, leave the weather out of it.

Earlier this summer, a Christian conservative couldn't resist publicly calling upon the higher power of his belief to deliver a downpour upon Barack Obama as the Democrat accepted his party's presidential nomination. (As it turned out, the Rocky Mountain evening could not have been lovelier.)

Now, as Hurricane Gustav threatens to disrupt the proceedings of the Republican National Convention, filmmaker and enfant terrible Michael Moore couldn't resist seeing divine intervention at work.

He made his foolish comments to Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, and our colleague Mark Silva has the details at the Chicago Tribune's Swamp blog.

-- Don Frederick