Gop, Republican National Convention | featured news

Republican leaders pushed through contentious changes to delegate rules over the objection of conservatives and supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Republicans have nominated former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for president, culminating a long primary fight and setting the stage for a close contest against President Barack Obama.

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.

Lights, camera, action: The Republican National Convention officially begins today at 2 p.m. ET inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum. USA TODAY is providing full coverage throughout the three-day event, which wraps up Thursday when Mitt Romney accepts his party's presidential nomination. Check your local TV listings for more coverage. Here is our guide to the five things to watch on Tuesday, Aug. 28...

Into the carefully scripted Republican convention has come a complication: a natural disaster that not only distracts attention from Mitt Romney but sets up a collision with a fundamental tenet of today's GOP.

The Tampa Bay Times Forum has a new kind of scoreboard -- a "national debt clock" that is ticking up to $16 trillion. The ever-ticking clock, hanging above the delegates to the Republican convention, is designed to be "a compelling visual reinforcing the desperate need for new fiscal leadership in the White House," says the Republican National Committee.

Less than 12 miles away from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Texas Rep. Ron Paul gave an impassioned farewell speech to about 8,000 raucous supporters at a farewell rally Sunday night where he declared the so-called Ron Paul Revolution was not over.

All the political attention might be focused on Republicans or even Tropical Storm Isaac, but that's not stopping President Obama from asking for more campaign money. In a new fundraising e-mail today geared to the swing state of Iowa, Obama says he's losing "the air war" and needs $5 or more from donors to pay for more campaign commercials.

Delegates began to arrive in Tampa on Sunday as convention organizers said they were still working on a revised schedule after canceling the first day because of the weather. Still, many of Sunday’s events were going ahead as planned.

The process used to be far more entertaining and important, with the party uncertain who its nominee would be at the time it went to convention. There was some talk early this year of a competitive convention if the GOP nominating contest dragged on too long, but it’s clear now that Romney will be the party’s nominee.