Cate Vojdik
AC360° Writer
The Republican National Convention is getting into full swing tonight, a day later than planned, thanks to Hurricane Gustav. The trick will be to fit all the planned speakers into the shortened timeframe. Among the GOP headliners we’ll hear from tonight: Sen. Joe Lieberman, former Sen. Fred Thompson, First Lady Laura Bush …and President Bush.
President Bush will make his comments live via remote from the White House. That’s about 1,000 miles from St. Paul in case you were wondering. Bush was supposed to give his speech live in St. Paul yesterday but backed out as Gustav hurtled toward the Gulf Coast. Today, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was a “mutual decision” that Bush would address the convention by remote instead of in person. A new national poll hints at what may have fueled that mutual decision. In the CNN/Opinion Research poll, only one in three Americans approve of the job Bush is doing. A quarter of those polled say Bush is the worst president in U.S. history, and six in ten have an unfavorable view of him personally. Ouch. And here’s what’s most troubling for the McCain campaign: A majority of those polled say that McCain’s policies would be the same as Bush’s, a number that has risen slightly since the Democratic convention ended.
The prevailing wisdom is that John McCain’s biggest task in St. Paul is to distance himself from Bush – and his policies. The big wild card is whether McCain’s surprising choice for a running mate will help or hurt him in this respect. McCain’s staffers spent much of the day responding to questions about how thoroughly Sarah Palin was vetted before she was tagged as veep. Their answer: very. But considering Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter and the so-called trooper-gate investigation that Palin’s facing back in her home state of Alaska, not everyone was swallowing that answer.
But back to the task at hand for the McCain campaign. The speakers you’ll hear tonight will talk about what makes him the right choice for president and why he’s his own man. They’ll talk about McCain the maverick, the former POW, the public servant. We’ll hear more about his adopted daughter, Bridget. It’s all part of the convention’s overarching theme: service above self. That’s the plan in broad brush strokes.
What do you think it will take to convince voters like those in the new CNN poll that McCain will chart a new and better course as president if elected? We’d love to hear from you. And stay with CNN for our special live coverage of the RNC in St. Paul.
Here’s tonight’s lineup:
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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/02/art.pj.bird2.jpg caption="Plaquemines Parish's Coastal Management Director PJ Hahn cleaning the distressed bird."]Kay Jones
AC360° Editorial Producer
I went about and hour and a half south of New Orleans to check out a potentially serious levee breech in Plaquemines Parish. Photographer Leon Jobe and I got on an air boat with a local guy, Jimmy, and the parish's Coastal Management Director PJ Hahn. What we saw was a major collapse of the levee, but fortunately no homes in immediate danger.
On our way back to the car, Jimmy spotted a bird in distress. The cormorant, which looks a lot like a seagull, was desperately trying to stay afloat. It was wrapped up in debris from the water, and being eaten up by fire ants. PJ reached in and helped free the bird of the debris, and washed the fire ants off. He then tried to check and see if its wings were broken. Luckily, it looked as if the poor thing was just exhausted more than anything.
We took the boat back to the levee and dropped off the bird. Hopefully, the poor thing had time to rest and get back on his way.
Here's one more picture: me and "local guy" Jimmy on an air boat south of New Orleans.
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Editor's Note: Iraq has approved a $3 billion deal with China to develop the al-Ahdab oil field. It's the first oil deal to be honored by Iraq and its new Iraqi government since the fall of Saddam Hussein, originally canceled after the 2003 invasion. Under the contract, China National Petroleum Corp. will develop the field for 20 years. It's expected to produce up to 25,000 barrels a day after three years, and eventually reach 125,000 barrels per day. CNN's Baghdad correspondent Arwa Damon share's with us the mood on the ground:
Arwa Damon | BIO
CNN Baghdad Correspondent
The news that Iraq had signed a “service contract” with China made the A bloc in the locals newscasts, but caused little reaction among most Iraq’s still trying to grapple with the difficulties of day to day life. The contract is in fact but a tiny fraction of Iraq’s oil wealth, and is service only – the China National Petroleum Company is going to provide technical advice, oil workers, and equipment. Iraq has already sworn that all oil revenue would go straight into the Iraqi treasury.
Problem is – Iraq, though expecting to rake in an additional 70 billion dollars of oil revenue this year – can’t get its oil flowing at full capacity. The extra and unexpected surplus is due to the rising oil prices, and has little to do with oil flow. The country’s oil infrastructure is in shambles. This is the first deal that government signed to try to address that problem, and in that sense it is significant. And its also symbolic – its the first deal signed with a foreign oil company since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Aside from needing to rebuild the oil infrastructure, there’s also the political side of if all. Iraq still needs to pass an oil law to define how much of the revenue goes into the central government’s pocket, how much to the provinces, and how to deal with who gets the money from unknown reserves. And that’s all caught up in tensions between the country’s Sunni, Shi’a, and Kurdish political blocs, each that wants what they think is their fair share of Iraq’s black gold. Even the spokesman for Iraq’s government concedes that that’s not going to pass anytime soon.
Iraqi’s are fully aware of how wealthy their country is and the potential that is out there, but few really believe it will turn into anything tangible that will improve their lives anytime soon.
As one of our Iraqi staff put it “From a burnt house you can take what you want, the house is burnt anyways”.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/02/art.palin.baby.jpg caption="This undated photo provided by the Heath family shows Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with her daughter Piper in Wasilla, Alaska." width=292 height=320]
Erica Hill
AC360° Correspondent
The McCain campaign is running on a simple motto, a seemingly simple concept: Country First. For John McCain, those words are more than a campaign slogan; they’re also the foundation for McCain’s personal journey. Just after returning from Vietnam, McCain wrote about his time as a POW. “I had a lot of time to think over there, and came to the conclusion that one of the most important things in life - along with a man’s family – is to make some contribution to his country.”
Country and family. For many Americans, if you add God to that list, you’d complete the list of things they hold most dear. But which of those very important parts of your life truly comes first? That is the uncomfortable question many voters are now posing, and there is no easy answer.
The life of a working mom has never been – and likely will never be – easy. Full disclosure: I am a working mother. I am also far from perfect.
This is not to say the life of a working father is easy; it’s not. But let’s be realistic, men and women deal with situations differently. We feel different pressures. Some are very real, others certainly seem that way. We also feel differently. No matter how far we have come, we are judged differently because we are different.
When Gov. Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s running mate on Friday, the reality of working moms and dads - their responsibilities, their loyalties, their daily struggles - was suddenly a hot topic… again. She’s not just a working mom; she is the working mother of five with a job that doesn’t come with many days or hours off. Her youngest, Trig, is still an infant. How do you juggle a baby and the #2 elected job in the US? That question has ignited the blogs, especially the Mommy blogs.
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Paul Courson
CNN Producer
Where are all the people? I've never seen a big city with empty streets and sidewalks, and even though I knew New Orleans was evacuated, seeing what that meant was TROUBLING. But the lack of much visible damage became reassuring. From a couple hundred feet in the sky, I could see that even the Riverwalk area, at the edge of the water, had been spared.
Not so for the Biloxi-Gulfport coastline. There, a few wrecked boats and many flooded houses showed where the storm surge left its mark.
In one hard-hit area, we circled around a large residential area, as the crew checked whether anyone had been trapped and needed rescue. Fortunately, everyone seemed to have evacuated this locale as well.
Jim Spellman
CNN Producer
St. Bernard Parish
The sign reads "times are hard in St. Bernard" and whatever spray paint poet wrote it has got it right.
Its not so much that Gustav brought hard times, the damage here from wind, water and a few levee issues has been relatively minor, but walking the neighborhood’s streets here makes it clear that three years after Katrina, the mess from that killer storm still remains.
Across the street from the sign sits a house with another kind of spray painted sign–the familiar cross with the number that search and rescue folks left behind.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/09/02/art.vert.shelter.jpg caption="The View from inside the Coliseum shelter in Alexandira, Louisiana." width=292 height=320]
Christine Romans | BIO
CNN Correspondent
The people who endured long bus rides to shelters far from home to escape Gustav are ready to go home.
But now they have to wait, and the patience is wearing thin. So is the food and the plumbing.
In Alexandria, Louisiana, local Red Cross volunteer Herb Boykin left the Coliseum shelter last night only to be called back to calm the evacuees.
'We almost had a riot here last night.'