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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday that the former state solicitor general will address the Aug. 27-30 convention along with four other conservative notables, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Cruz is a tea party darling who upset Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Dewhurst was backed by Gov. Rick Perry and much of the Texas GOP establishment but lost a July 31 runoff election to Cruz by 13 percentage points.

Cruz advances to the November election against Democratic former state Rep. Paul Sadler. Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.

ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) — Leaders across much of the Caribbean closed schools and government offices on Wednesday and urged people to stay at home as Tropical Storm Isaac swept toward the region, threatening to soon become a hurricane and perhaps eventually to menace Florida.

The storm was 140 miles (230 kilometers) east of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe late Wednesday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph). Isaac was moving west at 21 mph (33 kph) and was expected to become a hurricane by Thursday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

In Dominica, one of the first islands in the storm's path, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit urged people to stay home from work on Wednesday.

"I want us all to be safe," he said. "I don't want lives to be lost. I have listened to the advice of the experts and so I am asking all to stay indoors."

In Puerto Rico, Gov. Luis Fortuno declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. He also canceled classes and closed government agencies on Wednesday. The U.S. Coast Guard ordered all commercial vessels bigger than 200 gross tons to leave the port or obtain permission to remain in port.

The Liat airline said it expected to cancel flights to and from Dominica by Wednesday afternoon, and American Eagle has already canceled all its flights, according to Benoit Bardouille, CEO of the island's Air & Seaport Authority. The fast ferry that runs to Guadeloupe and Martinique also will temporarily suspend service, he said.

Disaster Coordinator Don Corriette warned of landslides and asked people in low-lying areas to seek shelter if needed.

The storm's center was expected to move over the Leeward Islands on Wednesday evening, and forecasters said it is expected to hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba as a hurricane later in the week.

Isaac also poses a possible threat to Florida during next week's Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and a swath of islands across the Caribbean including Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, Anguilla, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Culebra and Vieques.

A hurricane watch is in effect for Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and the south coast of the Dominican Republic.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Mitt Romney's Republican National Convention sputters to life Monday with the lonely banging of a gavel in a mostly empty hall, then hits full speed on Tuesday, just as forecasters say Tropical Storm Isaac could reach hurricane strength and make landfall somewhere between Mississippi and New Orleans.

"Our sons are already in Tampa and they say it's terrific there, a lot of great friends. And we're looking forward to a great convention," Romney said as he prepared to rehearse his convention speech at a New Hampshire high school auditorium. He suggested there were no thoughts of canceling the gathering.

Romney said he hopes those in the storm's path are "spared any major destruction." Looking ahead, the former Massachusetts governor signaled that he and his wife Ann are close to finalizing their speeches.

Tom Del Beccaro, a California delegate and chair of the state GOP, predicted the one-day delay would supercharge the rest of the convention.

"I think there's going to be a lot of bottled up energy, and I think that's going to show," he said.

But Sally Bradshaw, a Florida Republican and longtime senior aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was not so sanguine. "It's a mess all around and it's fraught with risk," she said. "It's not good for anybody — particularly the people impacted by the storm."

It was hardly the opening splash that convention planners had hoped for, and risked the juxtaposition of Republicans partying as the storm batters toward the gulf — almost exactly seven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

"Obviously we want to pray for anyone that's in the pathway of this storm," Party Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday on NBC's "Today" show, "but the message is still the same: that all Americans deserve a better future and that this president ... didn't keep the promises he made in 2008."

The party hastily rewrote the convention script to present the extravaganza's prime rituals and headline speakers later in the week, and further changes were possible. Convention planners said Monday's speakers would be worked into the schedule later in the week.

"We're going to continue with our Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule," said Russ Schriefer, the chief convention planner.

As the threat of the storm to Tampa diminished, delegates focused on party message and the near-term task of making Romney the nominee and working to defeat Obama in November.

"There's a mission here," said Gary Harkins, a delegate from Brandon, Miss. "We have to nominate a candidate for president. Our mission is to save America from becoming a socialistic state."

Sen. Rob Portman delivered a message to the Ohio delegation that was echoed at meetings and news conferences all across Tampa — the Obama presidency has been a failure.

"It's time to stop blaming others and take responsibility," Portman said at a breakfast session. "There are families all over Ohio that are suffering as a result. He hasn't measured up to his own standards. "

The weather was a constant concern for some. Jeanne Luckey of Ocean Springs, Miss., whose family lost a beachside home to Hurricane Katrina, said friends were helping secure their inland home for Isaac.

"It's a very busy time, certainly, but we've got to take care of the business of the party and make sure we get Governor Romney nominated," Luckey said. "We have a lot of work to do between now and November."

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan decided to head to Florida on Tuesday, a day later than expected. He was in his hometown of Janesville, Wis., on Monday putting final touches on his convention speech and addressing students at his former high school. Signs at the school proclaimed him "The pride of Janesville."

The storm was a complication, at best, for a party determined to cast the close election as a referendum on Obama's economic stewardship and Romney as the best hope for jobs and prosperity.

The concern was two-fold: that Tampa, hosting thousands of GOP delegates, would get sideswiped by the storm; and that it would be unseemly to engage in days of political celebration if Isaac made a destructive landfall anywhere on U.S. soil.

"You can tone down the happy-days-are-here-again a bit," said Rich Galen, a veteran Republican consultant in Washington. "Maybe you don't have the biggest balloon drop in history."

In Washington, aides said Obama was being updated at the White House on the storm. He was still planning his two-day campaign trip to Iowa, Colorado and Virginia, beginning Tuesday morning.

In a boost to Obama's convention next week, Florida's former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist was added as a speaker. Crist had announced on Sunday that he was endorsing Obama, saying he was the correct choice and criticizing his former party for its move to the right.

For all the weather concerns, a mix of partly sunny skies, fast-moving clouds and occasional rain covered Tampa at midmorning Monday as the outer bands of the tropical storm delivered unsettled conditions.

Traffic was light as streets around the arena were blocked off and security patrolled the area.

Under the reworked convention schedule, organizers planned a pro forma opening Monday afternoon to last just 10 minutes. Priebus was to gavel the convention to order, then immediately recess. Few delegates were expected to attend. In the only bit of convention-hall theater, a debt clock was to be set in motion, to tally the nation's red ink during the convention.

Speakers who had been scheduled for Monday were to start making the case against Obama, under the day's theme, "we can do better." That theme now will be threaded through the following three days, Schriefer said. "Even though the days will be abbreviated, I absolutely believe we'll be able to get our message out."

The roll call of state delegations affirming Romney as the party's nominee now is to unfold Tuesday, an evening capped by speeches from Ann Romney and an assortment of GOP governors. Ryan gets the prime-time spotlight Wednesday, and Romney closes out the spectacle Thursday night, his springboard into the final leg of the contest. That's all if the storm brings no further complications.

So far, many taking the shakeup in stride. "People are pretty resilient, and people knew going in that there were some weather issues," said Pat Shortridge, the Minnesota state GOP chairman, from Lino Lakes, Minn. "I don't think it's dampened enthusiasm."

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, scheduled to speak on Wednesday, said he wouldn't leave Louisiana "as long as we're in harm's way."

Weather was recognized as potential trouble when Republicans chose to hold their convention in politically vital Florida during hurricane season, a decision made well before Romney locked up the nomination. And it's clear that memories of Hurricane Katrina, and the failure of a Republican administration to respond effectively to its Gulf Coast devastation in 2005, are hanging over Tampa now. Republicans have been so sensitive to the political risks from natural disasters that they delayed the start of their national convention by a day in 2008, when Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf, far from their meeting in Minnesota.

Polls find a tight race, and it's one that is likely to be settled in a small number of battleground states.

An estimated $500 million has been spent on television commercials so far by the two candidates, their parties and supporting outside groups, nearly all of it in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. Those states account for 100 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to win the White House. Republicans hope to expand the electoral map to include Pennsylvania, Michigan, perhaps Ryan's Wisconsin and even Minnesota, states with 68 electoral votes combined.

All four are usually reliably Democratic in presidential campaigns. Yet Romney has a financial advantage over the president, according to the most recent fundraising reports, and a move by the Republicans into any of them could force Obama to dip into his own campaign treasury in regions he has considered relatively safe.

Republican office-holders past and present said the economy is the key if Romney is to expand his appeal to women and Hispanic voters.

"We have to point out that the unemployment rate among young women is now 16 percent, that the unemployment rate among Hispanics is very high, that jobs and the economy are more important, perhaps, than maybe other issues," said Arizona Sen. John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008.

The Romney campaign released a Spanish-language radio ad with son Craig's testimonial to his father.

Woodward reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in New Hampshire; Thomas Beaumont, Tamara Lush and Brendan Farrington in Florida; Philip Elliott in Wisconsin; and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republicans eagerly looked to showcase Mitt Romney as a man who understands everyday Americans and a leader who can fix the economy, with GOP National Convention speeches Tuesday by the woman who knows him best and tough-talking New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

But with New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast waiting fearfully to see where a massive storm makes landfall, politics became an awkward enterprise and no one knows what sort of party the GOP gathering will turn out to be.

After a one-day weather delay, the convention proceeds according to its latest script: delivering Romney the presidential nomination he fought years to achieve, calling the party to unify around him and setting the stage for the final stretch of the hotly contested campaign to unseat President Barack Obama.

Christie, who delivers Tuesday's keynote address, said that for those Americans who aren't yet sold on Romney, "you start turning it around tonight."

In a round of morning talk-show appearances, Christie said Ann Romney would humanize her husband for the nation, and that his own speech would make the case for GOP economic policies and Romney as the fixer. But ultimately, Christie said, it will up to Romney himself "to let the American people see who he is."

Meeting with Michigan delegates, Christie insisted that an effective president trumps likeability.

"We need somebody who cares more about getting the job done than they care about being temporarily popular with any particular segment of our country," Christie said.

Christie has his own fan club.

"I just love him," said Sandy Barber, a delegate from rural northwest Ohio. "He's plain-talking. He's himself. He's someone who lets his personality come through."

Romney, Barber allowed, "is a different kind of personality. His personality exudes leadership."

Eager to counter Romney's economic pitch to middle-class voters, a super PAC supporting Obama unveiled an ad featuring a small business owner who criticized the candidate's record on job growth as Massachusetts governor.

The Romneys boarded a plane bound for Tampa, but it was a mystery whether the GOP candidate would attend the convention before his big address Thursday night. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and his family, too, headed for Florida. Ryan delivers his speech Wednesday night.

Already in Tampa: a slew of GOP presidential also-rans: Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain posed for a photo after running into each other at the convention center, Cain joking that the caption could be: "We ain't mad. We support Mitt and Ryan." Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were on hand too, both with speaking slots.

The high campaign season opens with Romney and Obama about even in the last of the pre-convention polls, with each candidate possessing distinct and important advantages. The Democrat is the more likable or empathetic leader; the Republican is more highly regarded as the candidate who can restore the economy, the top issue for voters.

Ann Romney's convention speech was designed to speak to that divide. It was an important part of the GOP's effort to flesh out her husband and present him to the nation as more than a successful businessman and the former Republican governor of a Democratic state, Massachusetts.

She went about the business of humanizing the Romney family with a taped appearance on "CBS This Morning" in which she talked about the pain of a miscarriage, telling details about the experience that were news even to her husband. The Romneys have five sons.

Isaac, the intensifying tropical storm bordering on a hurricane, skirted Tampa, a big relief for convention organizers worried about the safety of the host city and GOP delegates. But they remain saddled with the question of how to proceed with a political festival — one devoted both to scoring points against Obama and firing up excitement for Romney — under the shadow of a dangerous storm crawling toward the Gulf Coast.

Tampa awoke to sunny skies Tuesday while convention planners monitored weather reports for the storm's impact on the Gulf Coast some seven years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region.

In a reminder of both the storm and the presidency, Obama warned residents of the Gulf Coast to heed warnings from local officials and follow their directions as the storm approached. He delivered brief remarks from the White House.

Organizers essentially cut Monday from the schedule, calling the convention to order just long enough to recess it, and shoehorned their four-day showcase into the remaining three days. But even that was subject to change, depending on Isaac's whims.

Republicans plainly had more at stake in their convention week — Democrats meet next week in Charlotte, N.C. — but the Obama campaign also had to recalibrate its tactics as Gulf residents fled their homes or hunkered down. Vice President Joe Biden was called off a Romney-bashing trip to Florida.

That's not to say partisanship has subsided with Isaac's gathering strength. Hardly.

Obama headed to Iowa on Tuesday as the first stop on a campaign trip in which he will make a personal appeal to college voters in three university towns: Ames, Iowa; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Charlottesville, Va.

Awaiting the president in Iowa: An article in the Des Moines Register in which 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole called Romney and Ryan a "dream ticket."

The two "have a program to turn the economy around that is the most thoughtful and comprehensive I have seen in my lifetime, and I have seen a lot," wrote the 89-year-old Dole.

On Twitter Monday night, Obama circulated a quotation from Women's Health Magazine suggesting that Republicans would take away women's right to contraception, which the Romney campaign denies. "Crazy as it sounds, the fight to limit or even ban birth control is a key issue in the upcoming presidential election," it said.

In a sign of just how stage-managed these conventions have become, the never-dull Christie did something he rarely does before a speech — wrote down a full text — as he prepared to deliver the keynote address Tuesday night. "They want you to work off a full text and that's fine," he told MSNBC. "I think my challenge up there is gonna be to be natural and be myself."

An AP-GfK poll of registered voters conducted from Aug. 16-20 found Obama leading Romney 50 percent to 44 percent among women. That represented a narrowing of the gap by Romney since a survey in May, when the president led 54-39 among female voters.

Romney trailed badly among another key group. A Gallup poll taken between July 30 and Aug. 1 found Obama winning 60 percent support among Hispanic voters, and the Republican at 27 percent, little different from 64-29 earlier in the year.

Among seniors, the group most affected by a Medicare debate that has become central to the campaign, Romney led Obama by a margin of 52 percent to 42 percent in the recent AP-GfK poll. That was compared with 53-40 in May.

Woodward reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Thomas Beaumont, Tamara Lush, Brendan Farrington and Julie Mazziotta in Florida; Steve Peoples in New Hampshire; Philip Elliott in Wisconsin and Steven Ohlemacher, Alicia A. Caldwell and Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — With the Republican National Convention at last in full-throated roar, nominee Mitt Romney and his team reached out Wednesday to connect with critical voting groups — veterans, Hispanics and women — while gleefully mocking the man he is out to defeat in November.

Romney himself was ducking out of his own convention in Tampa to address the American Legion Convention in Indianapolis. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a top Hispanic voice in the GOP, made the round of morning talk shows to defend the GOP nominee's policies. And Ann Romney and Janna Ryan, the wife of Romney's running mate, teamed up to headline a "Women for Romney" event.

His nomination now official, Romney was free at last to start dipping into his general-election pot of campaign cash.

"We're excited that now he's going to be able to spend money, both in English and in Spanish, to explain to people how his policies will help grow the economy, help small business, help people have the confidence to invest in the future," Rubio said on "CBS This Morning."

To ensure the cash keeps rolling in, Ann Romney emailed supporters a fundraising appeal that echoed her Tuesday night speech to the convention.

"This man will not fail," she promised in the plea.

The main draw Wednesday night is vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, the 42-year-old Wisconsin congressman and author of a tough budget that remakes the way the government spends money. A poll by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post found Americans deeply divided about Ryan, whom they described as conservative, intelligent, fake, phony.

President Barack Obama, for his part, was courting another key voting group — young voters — with a second day of campaigning in college towns. He had hoped to speak on the University of Virginia campus, but the school rejected that idea, saying it would disrupt classes on the second day of the semester. He'll speak in an off-campus pavilion instead.

The politics played out as Hurricane Isaac blew ashore on the Gulf Coast, casting uncertainty into a convention that scrubbed the first day of events out of fear it would swipe Tampa. Any scenes of destruction along the Gulf Coast were sure to temper the celebratory tone, and further compression of the schedule was possible if the storm proved disastrous.

The latest economic news suggested weak growth in the second half of the year, fodder for Republicans who blame Obama for the sluggish recovery. The U.S. economy grew at a tepid 1.7 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, the government reported Wednesday, a bit better than expected due to slightly stronger consumer spending and greater exports.

The GOP's outreach effort went into full gear after Ann Romney offered convention delegates — and a national TV audience — a soft-sided portrayal of the Republican candidate in her convention address. Her appearance was paired with a parade of gleeful Obama-bashers as the GOP seized its moment after days of worry about the hurricane.

Beyond Ryan, Wednesday's lineup includes 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Romney speaks Thursday night to bring down the curtain-closing balloons. Obama's Democratic National Convention follows next week in Charlotte, N.C.

Rubio held out Ryan as a "serious policy thinker" who's "going to have a bunch of new fans across this country" after he speaks.

The Obama campaign, in turn, released an online video targeting Ryan as a politician from a "bygone era" whose views threaten Medicare and would gut funding for Planned Parenthood.

Rice, warming up for her speech, said the voice of the United States in world affairs "has been muted" under this president, creating a chaotic and dangerous security environment. She spoke on "CBS This Morning."

Opinion polls, however, show Obama getting high marks on national security after ending the war in Iraq, drawing down the conflict in Afghanistan and ordering the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

The convention's keynote speaker, the unpredictable New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, issued a broad indictment of Democrats on Tuesday as "disciples of yesterday's politics" who "whistle a happy tune" while taking the country off a fiscal cliff.

"It's time to end this era of absentee leadership in the Oval Office and send real leaders to the White House," he said. "Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to put us back on the path to growth and create good-paying, private-sector jobs again in America."

Romney made his debut at the convention two days before his own speech, rousing the crowd into cheers as he took the stage briefly to share a kiss with his wife after she spoke. Ann Romney's prime-time speech was in large measure an outreach to female voters as she declared her husband "will not let us down" if elected president.

Her tone was intimate as she spoke about the struggles of working families: "If you listen carefully, you'll hear the women sighing a little bit more than the men. It's how it is, isn't it? It's the moms who always have to work a little harder, to make everything right."

Obama's allies did their best to counter Romney and the Republicans.

In her own effort to woo female voters, first lady Michelle Obama traveled to New York to promote her healthy-living initiatives while visiting "The Dr. Oz Show" and Rachael Ray's talk show. The programs will air next month, closer to the election.

Mrs. Obama also was making a guest appearance on Wednesday's "Late Show with David Letterman."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, dismissing GOP attempts to woo Hispanic voters, said: "You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate." He added, "This is a party with a platform that calls for the self-deportation of 11 million people."

Hispanics strongly favor Obama, according to public polls, and Romney and his party have been seeking to win a bigger share of their votes by emphasizing proposals to fix the economy rather than ease their positions on immigration.

Polls find the economy is overwhelmingly the dominant issue in the race and voters narrowly favor Romney to handle it. In an AP-GfK poll taken Aug. 16-20, some 48 percent of registered voters said they trust Romney more on economic issues, to 44 percent for Obama. However, a Washington Post-ABC News in the days immediately before the convention found that 61 percent of registered voters said Obama was more likable, while 27 percent said Romney.

Woodward reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Thomas Beaumont, Tamara Lush, Brendan Farrington, Julie Mazziotta, Steve Peoples, Kasie Hunt and Philip Elliott in Florida, Frazier Moore in New York, Julie Pace in Colorado and Stephen Ohlemacher and Jennifer Agiesta in Washington contributed to this report.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the voice of the United States in world affairs "has been muted" under President Barack Obama, creating a chaotic and dangerous security environment.,

Rice, who speaks Wednesday night to the Republican National Convention, sought to tout Mitt Romney's foreign policy credentials.

She tells "CBS This Morning" Romney "would understand American exceptionalism and would not be afraid to lead from the front." Rice says the election is about "the future of American leadership" in the world. She says U.S. policy on Syria has been ineffective. Asked what she thinks President Barack Obama has done wrong, the former Bush administration official says Washington has been losing influence around the world because Obama has repeatedly demanded that Syria's Bashar Assad step aside and nothing has happened.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The conventional wisdom about national political conventions is that they have outlived their purpose.

Once, they were the place where the parties actually picked their candidates for president and vice president. But for at least 30 years now, conventions have been the place where the nominees, long since selected, try to bind up their party's internal wounds and reach out over the heads of the delegates to woo the less partisan voters who usually decide the election.

They have become the largest, most expensive infomercials in human experience.

So why are we even still having them?

As the parties convene, there will be much chattering that conventions don't matter anymore, that they are a waste of money (some of it taxpayer money) and should be abandoned. "Total anachronisms. Parties should scrap 'em," sniffs Mark McKinnon, former media adviser to George W. Bush and a co-founder of No Labels, a group devoted to purging "hyper-partisanship" from politics.

The Senate, in fact, voted, 95 to 4 a few weeks ago to cut off in the future the $18.3 million subsidy each party gets to stage (that is the word — "stage") the conventions. Homeland Security also gives out $50-milllion to assure security at each convention.

The parties are not likely to give up their moments in the sun, however.

Conventions are the time when voters really tune in. Even with the reduced air time the TV networks now give them, conventions bring a spike in attention, says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. Social media is likely to magnify that this year in the same way that it whetted TV audiences' appetites for this summer's other big event, the London Olympics.

The acceptance speeches of the two presidential nominees will be the largest campaign audience either receives until they meet together for the three debates.

Those speeches are no small thing.

American politics is hardly burdened by too much communication, although if you live in a battleground state saturated with 30-second commercials you might be forgiven for thinking that. The larger problem is too little substantive communication, particularly communication that forces a thought to last longer than the speed of sound-bite.

The acceptance speeches are the only time in the entire fall campaign when each candidate speaks directly to the country for an extended time, unfiltered by news coverage or back and forth with an opponent.

Other countries arrange time specifically for that sort of thing. Not in America.

"It is the best chance for a candidate to 'introduce himself' to the country on his own terms," says former Rep. Mickey Edwards, a Republican from Oklahoma. That is particularly interesting coming from Edwards, who in almost every other respect excoriates the present political system in his new book, "The Parties Versus the People."

"I do, indeed, want to radically overhaul the system, but that's about the voting process, money, partisanship in governing," Edwards says. "The convention is not at that level; it's more of a 'show', more important than mere 'entertainment.' I see it as something worth watching, and even more so than most of the other stuff on television."

Indeed, it is the kind of high-school civics version of campaigning that is otherwise pretty hard to locate in the day-to-day scrum of American national politics these days.

If the candidates want to speak directly to the nation after their conventions, they have to pay for the time, as Obama did in 2008.

Of course, if the justification for public spending on party events is that the acceptance speech is a public service, the government could just spend that $18.3 million to buy air time for each campaign.

That $18.3 million is one of the last remnants of a public finance system that was meant to curb money in politics. The IRS collects $3 from every taxpayer who ticks the box for the presidential campaign fund. But most of the money, some $235 million, is sitting in the government coffers because neither Romney nor Obama is taking their share, preferring instead to go out and raise and spend even more on their own.

Since $18 million might not be enough, at going rates, to buy an hour across all the networks and key cable channels, Congress could authorize the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to tap the rest of that money, too, to buy time on the condition it was used for long-form presentations. There will be a great temptation to take this unspent money and plow it back into paying down the government debt. But it would probably increase the chances of actually dealing with that debt if the candidates used the money to explain the fiscal situation and what they planned to do about it.

The parties will have to make their own decision whether to continue the conventions without the federal subsidy. They might well, since the conventions are still a valuable tool for rewarding party workers and motivating the base voters of each party, something that could loom particularly large this year in an election that may revolve even more than usually on whose loyalists turn out in the fall (partisan voters do tend to watch their own convention more than the other guys').

Conventions weren't part of the original plan. The founders by and large hated parties (tellingly, they called them factions) and probably would have hated partisan conventions, which were invented only after they were gone.

Conventions were originally thought of as a reform of a system in which congressmen picked the candidates. The first party conventions were before the election of 1832, and nominated Henry Clay to challenge President Andrew Jackson. Delegates arrived at both those party conventions knowing who would get the nomination. Just like this year. But that hasn't stopped conventions from convening every four years since.

Even before the federal subsidy is yanked, the conventions are evolving. Once a fixture of midsummer, the Democratic convention this year will actually be after Labor Day, coinciding with the traditional kickoff of fall campaigning. The Democrats had already cut their convention to three days, recognizing a reality that broadcasters weren't going to pay attention to their activities on Labor Day anyway. The broadcasters then told the Republicans they wouldn't cover their Monday sessions either, and Hurricane Isaac has now finished the job of washing out day one.

"Despite separation between church and state, Mother Nature is helping to ensure that the conventions get trimmed from four days to three," said Elizabeth Wilner, vice president of the Kantar/media analysis group. "With Dems really only doing three days, and now Republicans only doing three days, in 2016 there will be pressure to only do three days."

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., saw this coming. He has served as parliamentarian of the last four GOP conventions. He recalls that in 2008 a Katrina-class hurricane was barreling for the Gulf Coast as the convention convened in Minnesota. His staff got together and figured out a way to compress all the legally required business of the convention — rules, the platform and the nomination of the ticket — into a few hours so delegates from the Gulf Coast, including the governors of Louisiana and Mississippi, could rush home to respond to the looming disaster.

This Plan B went unneeded. The hurricane blew out, and the convention went ahead as planned over four days to nominate John McCain and Sarah Palin.

While Dreier developed a plan to effectively eliminate the Republican convention, that doesn't mean he would. "There will be a degree of uncertainty about what party conventions will look like in the future," he said as he headed to Tampa. "They are going through a bit of a change. But I don't agree they are unnecessary."

EDITOR'S NOTE — Michael Oreskes is senior managing editor for U.S. news at The Associated Press. Reach him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .