The Republican National Convention is a new type of political convention.  I would be interested to hear from people who responded to a quick survey run prior to either convention in my local paper regarding conventions and relevancy in current day politics.

Laura Bush gave a short speech today.  She then introduced an aggregate video message from four of the five governors of Gulf states affected by Hurricane Gustav.  All five of these governors are prominent Republicans.  Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana did not contribute to the video but Governor Rick Perry of Texas, Governor Bob Riley of Alabama, Governor Charlie Crist of Florida and Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi spoke on the video.  I realize that weather was a pressing issue but was still disappointed that at least one 24 news network chose to not show the video from these governors.

After the video, Cindy McCain spoke briefly to draw attention to the new “service” oriented slant on the convention.  She discussed events to raise funds while the RNC is in Minneapolis-St Paul and brought both the national audience watching on television and those in the arena the website called CauseGreater.com.