It's not the hurricane that is harmful to Republicans, it's their mean-spirited policies and hypocrisy on everything from women's health to taxes to governing responsibly that is harmful. They place Party first, above the needs of the nation. Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, and John Boehnor are the leaders of the Party of NO! and their statements and actions over the past four years are a crystal clear indication of what is most important to the Republican Party. Their platform and their candidates are antiquated and divisive. Their main goal from January 20, 2009 has been the defeat of President Obama. Nothing else has mattered to them. The Republican Party and it's elected and un-elected representatives are determined to oppose anything and everything that is offered or proposed by President Obama and the Democrats because their goal is not governing for the good of the nation, it's governing for the religious right, the wealthy few and their corporate donors and supporters.

Isaac, Woody, and Rynut.... what a combination to topple the GOP crazies convention!

What would be even more "harmful," would be that this Senile RINO Fossil attends the Convention or has a chance to speak. Go Away John and Stay Away. Your Brand expired years ago. You and your ideology are OUT of Date!

Charlie Crist endorses Obama in FL. He is still popular down there.

Ron Paul says he does not fully endorse Mitt. So much for the video tribute.

Not a great start to the week for Mitt. And that does not include the Hurricane.

Dems convention follows GOP. Nice for momentum. Obama will have the last word. America will see a diverse, tolerant, calm Party. The direct opposite of the GOP, which will be all bluster, obfuscation and thinly-veiled racism. BTW, Where's President Bush and Dick Cheney? The Torture Brothers.

We all know how the far Christian right believes the Repubican Party head person is in Heaven above and watches over "true believers". Looking at the track of Isaac (appropriately biblical name) just maybe he/she who knows best is more progressive and "of the people" - as was his son - than those good ole folks would like to believe!

What's so harmful? We have been waiting for Obama to do something positive for 3 & 1/2 years.

Is there any Republican who has the ballz to let McCain know that he actually lost in 2008......

Actually it might be beneficial to the Republicans if their prime time is cut short. Once the nation gets a load of the elephant poo that they are shoveling the country will see a huge landslide for Obama/Biden. As it is Obama/Biden will win anyway but if people really see the elephant poo being shoveled or raked we'd see a greater victory for Obama/Biden.

You know, this Hurricane provides a perfect opportunity for the Republican party to tell voters what they are all about.

As part of the truncated convention they can do something like publish their platform planks and tell us all how they intend to implement them and tell us what Gov. Romney has said about his position on the Republican platform (the devil is in the details ya know) instead of people having to try to interpret it from the speeches Then voters would have a chance to actually see and digest what their agenda is, compare it to GOP past activities and contrast it with the Democrats.

Talk about an opportunity for transparency and accountability!

Or it could be helpful. Any day that the GOP isn't spewing its message of hate, class warfare, and misogyny is a good day for their electoral chances.

2012 is proving to be an extraordinary election year.

Romney is playing dodgeball with the issues, making the mistake of thinking that being INSIDE THE CIRCLE is somehow 'WINNING THE GAME' while being forced by circumstance to spend most of his time trying simply NOT TO GET HIT.

Obama is on the rim throwing balls at Romney while failing to comprehend that beyond his circle is yet another, larger circle comprised of the electorate.

We, the electorate, are throwing balls at both Romney and Obama, but unwittingly, only Obama has his back turned to us. The problem for Obama is that even the balls aimed at Romney can take him down en route.

Mr. Obama, turn around on occasion and check what we're doing. It would be a shame for you to be knocked out of the game simply for focusing too completely on a captive target.

Don't they get it. This is GOD's message. God does not want them on national TV extoling the atheist Ayn Rand's philosphy that is espoused by Paul Ryan - that philosophy is - if you have it flaunt it, and if you don't drop dead. Quite contrary to the teachings of Christ? Yet Christians are blinded by this. And think Ryan and Mitt are "Christian". They are not in their deeds for sure.

Ryan who has been living off taxpayer money all his life - and will retire with a full government taxpayer paid health insurance coverage and a fat pension of course wants not one iota of any of that for anyone else.

Further delays to GOP convention 'could be harmful'

Is it possible to do more harm than they've already done to themselves?

Airports being closed all over central and southern Florida, that may tweak McCain's plans a bit further, any further delay is just peachy keen, hookers can wait. Moneyed Geezers from Marco, Naples, Ft. Myers are staying put. Still complaining about their lumbago and dividend checks, of course all this the Presidents fault. I guess many Conventioneers are having a bit of trouble showing up, think of all those prepaid hotel rooms, Koch Boys picking up the tab., hmm. Strip clubs giving discounts for private viewings, many bored republicans signing up. Whoo Hoo.

Obama 2012

NO-Bama 2012

The bro's gotta go

And take Harry, Nancy and Joe

Romney is a freak! He's a Mormon, not a Christian! Are my fellow Republicans so blinded that they would nominate the Devil to represent us?

www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s07e12-all-about-mormons

Ron Paul 2012!

Here are some interesting facts for you Repuke supporters, the debt to GDP is as follows:

Bush-27%,Reagan-20%,Clinton-9.7% decrease,Carter-3.3 % decrease,and Obama

15.4% !!!

McCain, the longer your party is forced to keep their mouths shut...the better off for you guys.

I always thought fisted deadheads post were satire also??

Just like the Onion site but they are a bit more believable..

I do really enjoy reading what the mindless legion of her

lemmings post.

The main issue is to ensure the rain from messing up Mitt's hair - they can always reschedule a convention.

I have nothing to due with the hurricane in the gulf,please give to your local food self.

The only thing harmful is when MC Cain speaks.

Mitt Romney complied with the law and supplied his two years of tax returns. Having worked at IRS and can tell you that IRS looks at the high roller tax returns all the time and for years to catch anything they have missed. The number of tax returns that Mitt Romney are the same as all the other people running for president both democrat and republican have supplied. Putting the shoe on the other foot were is the multi millionair president Obama's education transcripts and papers from his class's. The claim by his followers is he is brilliant, "prove it!!!!!". The democrats have been in control of the house and senate in the last term of the Bush administration and they had all three branch's of the government house, senate and presidency of the multi millionair Obama administration and are still failures. McCain in this article is a republican in name only and is tactically stupid it would be better if the republican convention happened after the democrat convention because the public is lazy and they will remember the last thing that is said rather then the first.

It will be a festival of evil.

How Mr. Romney Would Force-Feed the Pentagon

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are portraying themselves as lionhearted budget-cutters, ready to slice out profligate spending in all sorts of government programs and services and lead America to lower taxes and lower deficits. Many experts say their numbers don’t add up, even if they were to impose all the cuts they want.

Yet none of that philosophy seems to apply to the defense budget — which accounts for roughly half of all federal discretionary spending.

Instead of proposing sensible and necessary reductions, they would throw more money at a Pentagon that has had a blank check for more than a decade. The base budget for 2013 — not including war-related costs — is projected at $525 billion, up roughly 34 percent from 2001. By 2022, Mr. Romney’s plan would increase annual spending to $986 billion, according to an analysis by Travis Sharp of the Center for a New American Security.

The centerpiece of Mr. Romney’s proposal is a promise to spend at least 4 percent of gross domestic product on military personnel, procurement, operations and maintenance, and research and development. That would add as much as $2.3 trillion to the defense budget over 10 years from projected 2013 spending levels, according to Mr. Sharp’s analysis.

And yet for all these extra trillions, there’s no sense that this money would produce a more effective security strategy. Linking a budget to the G.D.P. is a bizarre way of addressing defense needs — which rationally should be based on a disciplined analysis of threats and the nation’s tolerance of risk. This certainly won’t provide any incentive for reform in a Pentagon that spends with more waste and less economic bang for the buck than other federal departments. Some conservatives have advocated the G.D.P. metric, saying it would ensure military strength by guaranteeing increased defense spending as the nation’s wealth rises. But others — like the anti-tax guru Grover Norquist — have urged Republicans to lead in reducing the military budget.

Mr. Romney is showing no restraint. Even though American forces are out of Iraq and withdrawing from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, his campaign Web site states that he would reverse President Obama’s plan to cut the Army and Marine Corps by 100,000 troops. Doing that, according to Mr. Sharp, would cost at least $41 billion over five years. Just what mission the extra troops would perform is unspecified.

Mr. Romney wants the Navy to increase shipbuilding from 9 ships per year to 15, at a cost of billions more. His position paper speaks of expanding the naval presence in the Western Pacific to counter China, which Mr. Obama is already doing. A campaign spokeswoman said many of the extra 100,000 slots would be used to staff the new ships, but that doesn’t begin to explain the need for sustained troop levels.

Mr. Romney also promises a “robust, multilayered national ballistic-missile defense system” to defend against nuclear attacks on the United States and its allies, even though the system has been under development for years and there is still no guarantee it will work.

And how would he pay for his huge new defense budgets? In an interview with Fortune, Mr. Romney spoke of “enormous opportunities for finding efficiency and cost savings in the military.” His targets, according to his campaign, would be the Pentagon’s civilian work force and reforms of the weapons procurement process. Such reforms are necessary but not easy, given inter-service rivalries and the clout of Congress and a well-financed defense lobby.

The Obama administration has committed to similar reforms, which the Pentagon says will save $210 billion over six years. That’s a start, but still just a fraction of what would be needed to offset the added cost of Mr. Romney’s G.D.P.-linked budget. The truth is that the added military spending would have to come from savaging most other federal programs, including those serving the most vulnerable Americans.

Mr. Ryan, of course, is now on board with the Romney plan. But he voted for the 2011 Budget Control Act, which mandated $487 billion in defense cuts over a 10-year period beginning in 2012 and $500 billion more beginning in 2013 if Congress doesn’t reach a deal on reducing the deficit. And the budget he produced as chairman of the House Budget Committee is less generous to the Pentagon. It would, however, make severe cuts in diplomacy and foreign aid. Such budgeting would lead to even greater overreliance on military might than already exists.

After a decade of unchecked spending growth, the Pentagon can prudently absorb significant reductions at a time when the country is under economic stress. President Obama has begun to put the brakes on spending by slowing the rate of growth. But billions more could be saved by cutting wasteful or unnecessary conventional and nuclear weapons programs.

Voters are entitled to an honest debate on defense priorities. They need to hear not just about weapons and troop levels, but about the threats the candidates see in the world and how diplomacy and other levers of power can also be used to keep the nation safe. So far, they’ve heard nothing more than generalities from Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan. Neither man has a background in national security, so it’s not surprising that they’re trying to prove their bona fides by embracing a profligate defense budget.