Weather, Republican National Convention | featured news

David Frum says the drought is driving up world food prices, and history suggests that is likely to produce unrest within poor nations. Prediction: 2013 will be a year of serious global crisis. That crisis is predictable, and in fact has already begun. It will inescapably confront the next president of the United States. Yet this emerging crisis got not a mention at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. We'll see if the Democrats do better.

Here are some things to watch for at the Republican National Convention Wednesday: 1. RIDING THE STORM OUT: As Hurricane Isaac batters the Gulf Coast, Mitt Romney and GOP conventioneers decide how to respond. Can they show empathy for storm victims even as they celebrate Romney's nomination? Is there a way to help out? Also, watch how President Barack Obama handles Isaac, seven years after Hurricane Katrina caused so much trouble for President George W. Bush.

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.

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.

Tropical Storm Isaac's outreach is expected to be felt in Florida by late Sunday night -- just as Mitt Romney , Paul Ryan and the GOP faithful are gathering in Tampa for the Republican National Convention.

Tropical Storm Isaac churned away in the Atlantic Ocean early Wednesday, forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and posing a potential threat to the GOP convention in Florida next week.