earlier today saying there need to be voluntary evacuations right now in 15 parishes. so hopefully people are paying attention to that and we'll see how it all unfolds, if you're going to take it away. much more of the "newsroom" ahead. chad myers will be joining you with the latest updates as well. good to see you. >> you, too. better safe than sorry. thanks, fred. it's a lot worse than what i thought it was going to be. i was expecting some rain. it's a lot of wind. >> a lot of wind. that is a fair observation if you look at this by the people in the florida keys right now, particularly key west. that's the bull's-eye right now. tropical storm isaac, rainmaker. yes, hurricane not yet. want you to look at these people on miami beach right now. no emergency there. just high winds and a challenging day on the beach. there's plenty to worry about in the gulf coast of florida, though. tropical storm isaac chugging its way north and west of the

path projected just a few days ago. want to bring in our meteorologist now, cnn's chad myers in the severe weather center. exactly, chad, where is this storm officially expected, when and where to make landfall? >> it probably made landfall just a few minutes ago right near ft. jefferson near an island in the key west chain, but there's not a bridge there so you have to take a boat. key west is right there. that's the end. and tmoving right over the top f that into the gulf of mexico here. and that water right here is hot. that's all i can say about it. very, very warm. we are still seeing quite a few rain bands coming onshore here across parts of south florida. any one of those bands can rotate and you may hear the tornado sirens at any time tonight. get ready for that. may want to sleep in an interior hallway if you don't like that whatsoever. i know you guys are just talking about the irony of katrina. >> yeah. >> let me show you something

that might make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. >> really. >> yeah. here we go. here's where we are. here's where we were at 11:00 on this night seven years ago. and this is what happened to katrina as it turned and run right up into new orleans. let me show you thousand thhow . this is the track from august 26th, 11:00 p.m., 2005. here's where we are, right there. that's where our storm is. that's where katrina was at 11:00. >> that's the comparison i was talking to fred about. >> this is the turn it made. >> you guys sent out in the weather center, chad. that is frightening. >> it is -- when i saw it i went, wow, we have to put on that on tv. i don't care that it doesn't look that great. national weather service graphic. i don't care. it's frightening seeing where this storm is, what the date was which means the water's probably close to the same temperature, it may be a little cooler this time, but, yeah, we have a lot to think about. when you say yes, it can go to

louisiana, that's a long trip compared to a short trip to florida, this easily could be a bigger storm than is projected. you need to take this seriously. >> chad, stick with me for a minute because we're waiting for governor of florida, rick scott, to hold a news conference at any minute now. we'll have the latest response to this hurricane. so bring that to you when it happens. chad, what es that mean to you when you look at -- can you bring that back up? what does that say to you as a meteorologist, assen experienced meteorologist? >> what part? >> the part comparing to hurricane katrina. what do you say to the people down in the gulf coast when you look at that? >> the only slight difference that we have with this one is obviously there was a major hurricane right through here, is when katrina moved through here, this was what's called the loop current. that's the warmest water in the gulf of mexico, and katrina exploded on its northward track into louisiana. this storm that we're doing here, the forecast is something more like this, so we're not in this warmest water which is here, slightly cooler, but you

have to understand how big katrina got. you know, if we even get two-thirds of the size of katrina we're in trouble. the problem with the storm is it's never really had an eye, never got its act together with an eye wall all the way around. if and when that happens, this storm will turn into a v-8 engine rather than the sputtering storm it is now. the sooner that happens the bigger the storm will be. hasn't happened for two days. we're in good shape. this hits the gulf coast as a ts, that's it. but i don't think that happens. i think this engine gets going and we get a major hurricane. >> now it's a tropical storm still, not a hurricane. where was katrina at this point? >> katrina was already -- i believe it was already a hurricane. i can tell you right there because it will say the number on here where we are. it was already a category 2 right there at 11:00 seven years ago. >> stand by, chad. i'm getting some instruction from the producer. let's look at rick scott as he's speaking.

can we hear him? rick scott in tampa, the governor of florida holing a press conference. lease listen in. >> the panhandle is already saturated so 18 inches of rain is a significant problem. especially in escambia county. the expectation is we'll have tropical storm-force winds for 40 hours in the county. as you know earlier a couple months ago we had a lot of flooding in the pensacola area, so we have that risk again. mayor talked for about tampa, but 2 to 4 inches of rain, tropical storm-force winds, so we still have some issues. but one positive this storm is going faster, so anything that's happening it will happen faster. now, all along the coast of florida we're worried about storm surge, wind, rain, and tornadoes. so everybody needs to continue to be cautious, three days of water, three days of food, a full tank of gas. have your medicine. if you're in the tampa area, if

you're on the beach, stay on the beach side. >> chad, he's telling people there what to do. obviously, he has been talking about what's happening at the convention as well. we should say, chad, that florida is a state of emergency right now. we know new orleans is under a hurricane warning, mississippi, as well. i'm not sure about alabama. have to get the latest information on alabama. >> all the way across. >> all right, chad. >> talking about escambia county, far western panhandle, because that's still in the cone here. as it moves away, the storm gets to move away, conditions get better. for the west coast of florida, the wind are offshore. there's not too much of a threat of a surge here on the west coast of florida. we will get big waves on the east coast and you could see some coastal erosion here all night long, these winds 30, 40 miles per hour, every time a thunderstorm rolls over you. >> still moving and still gaining and we will be watching. chad myers, stick around. thank you. we'll need you. you heard the governor talking about florida. isaac has rattled the republican

national convention after announcing the suspension of monday's session. party leaders are thinking about extending the convention into friday. they just don't know what the storm is going to do. so they're leaving their options open at this point. once the convention officially starts on monday, it will immediately recess until tuesday because of that storm. we want to get a live shot of the florida keys right now, go live there, cnn's john zarrella has been covering the story. any flooding in major damage? anybody hurt? what do you know? >> reporter: just within the last hour, don, i did have an opportunity to talk to the folks at the emergency management center in mara on this, the monroe county emergency management officials. they told me this is what they have. they had some sporadic power outages up and down the keys, but all of those have been restored. at that point an hour ago, no reports of any power outages. they did have some reports of some minor overwash in a couple of places along the key, but they expected a lot of that

would recede. they are telling people to, you know, stay indoors, ride this thing out the rest of the night because you could still get some squalls moving across as the storm pulls away from us. in fact, you can look back out here in the distance, and you can see it's kind of a squall line rotating around there in the distance, as well, trying to work its way over to where we are. but it's still quite a ways away. but for the most part, throughout the latter half of the afternoon and into the evening, don, this has been the way it has been down here on the psi of the island that we're on. now, on the atlantic side of the island, a little more action they had today, but again officials say they did have some minor street flooding in key west, but that was it. and you can see that they are very, very pleased, at least so far, from their initial assessments at what they are finding out there. but, again, telling people stay indoors, don't go out. it's just still you're not safe

to go out and you end up in a squall it still can be copping through here during the course of the evening and the overnight hours. don? >> okay. stand by, john zarrella. we'll get back to you in just a moment, as well. on the western coast of florida, storm surge and beach erosion biggest concerns there. brian todd is in naples, florida, for us. brian, how much rain are they expecting there? how much have you seen? >> reporter: we've seen quite a lot, don. it's tapered off right now, but we got a lot of it earlier. want to take you down to the beach here. you can see some of the rain bands circulating to the south a little bit. rain has come and gone. we've had some intense squalls of rain here. we're also worried about this situation. a little bit of storm surge combineded with high tide. high tide coming in the next few hours probably starting just after midnight eastern time continuing until maybe 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 a.m. but possible storm surge combined with high tide is what has officials in collier county a little worried about possible

flooding. they have some inland waterways behind us over here which almay prompt storm surge from the other side. that's one thing they're watching out for, don. rainfall is key here. this has been really a rain event more than a wind event. this place they say could get up to 10 inches of rainfall in a couple hours. the ground here is already saturated. that's going to be a big problem here, don, as we look to the hours ahead here and overnight. >> here's what we know about naples. it's a retirement community. a lot of older people there. is that a cause of concern? >> reporter: yeah. it really is, don. you know, the director of emergency services here just told mae short time ago they are concerned about that, but they have a good read on where all the elderly people live. he talked about, quote, elect c electricalelectri electrically dependent people, on dialysis machines and other things that need to be monitored more closely. they'll keep a close eye on them, but they are concerned about that. talked to john about power outages down there.

no significant power outages yet, but that's a concern for the elderly. >> brian todd, we'll get back to you as well. all our reporters are standing by for us. flying into the eye of the storm, hurricane hunters have wrapped up a flight through is the center of isaac and have new information on how the storm is growing and where it might be headed. >> you've seen this guy. he came over to me with a fish and telling me that isaac was spitting out fish onto the shore here. >> with sand in their faces, rain in their eyes, and wind in their hair, crews are covering the storm all along the gulf coast. could fly. like others who braved the sky before her, it took a mighty machine, and plain old ingenuity to go where no fifth grader had gone before. ♪ and she flew and she flew, into the sky and beyond. my name is annie and i'm the girl who dreamed she could fly. powered by intel core processors. ♪

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>>the area along the gulf coast now under a hurricane warning includes new orleans. and just this afternoon, the governor of louisiana declared a state of emergency in advance of the storm. if isaac arrives on wednesday as now predicted, that means it would come ashore on the seventh anniversary of hurricane katrina. still too early to say when and where exactly isaac might hit land. and while isaac is expected to get stronger, it's not expected to pack the power of katrina. not expected at this point. using the phrase "hurricane warning" and "new orleans" in the same sentence obviously gets

people's attention and really quickly. let's bring in jerry snead now. he's got some very important information for us. he is the deputy mayor for public safety and homeland security in new orleans. thanks for joining us, sir. how you guys doing down there? >> we're watching and waiting just like everybody else, making sure our plans are prepared, moving public safety asset where is they need to be, and then asking our citizen s to be prepared. >> what's the main thing you're focused on right now in the city? are you focusing on getting people out or as you said getting your equipment into place? >> we have not asked for a mandatory evacuation because we don't see the need for it at this time. what we're doing is just ensuring our plans are in place for our public safety to be able to respond to help our citizen, and then we're asking our citizens to be ready to prepare for what we think is going to be a category 2 storm and just do the best we all can and we respond to see what happens afterwards. we've got the levee system's the

best it's been ever, so we feel comfortable of the preparation the corps has given us for our levee systems. and now we just need to do the refining touches and be ready for what looks like a good wind and rain event. >> so you're just asking people right now just to be aware and to pay attention to what you're saying and just to be on guard for information from you. correct? >> that's correct. >> okay. at what point do you decide to impose either voluntary or mandatory evacuations? >> voluntary evacuations, citizens can leave anytime they want. if they feel they would be more comfortable -- let's face it, if we get a hurricane, we may lose electricity and so forth. august in new orleans, no air conditioning can be a bad time around here. if people would like to leave on their own, they can do that at any time. our plans are very a category 3 or higher storm is when wealth normally do a mandatory evacuation where we demand that

all of our citizens leave. but, again, all indications are we're not there. >> but you do at times call for a voluntary evacuation. you haven't even done that yet. >> we have not. >> okay. thank you, mr. sneed. good luck to you. >> thank you very much. >> all right. let's go now to miami and talk with ed rappaport. he is deputy director of the national hurricane center. thank you for joining us this evening. what is your agency doing right now and what will change if and when this storm becomes a hurricane? >> we're expecting that it will become a hurricane in the next day or so. right now the center of the storm is beginning to pull away from the florida keys. it's moving in this direction. we're expecting it to turn more towards the north-northwest within the next day or two. and because of that, and because we do expect it to intensify to a hurricane, there now is a hurricane warning up from east of morgan city, louisiana, all the way over to destin, florida, including the new orleans area.

>> so everyone in there. just talking with our meteorologist here, we were examining the path of isaac as compared to katrina. very similar paths. but different intensities in this storm. it's not the exact same path but it's very similar. >> that's right. katrina started strengthening just after past florida, and it's also possible that that will happen with isaac. at this stage we're forecasting it to become category 2, but that's about two days from now, and the average errors in our forecast suggest that you have to prepare for at least one category difference. so while we're forecasting category 2, could be category 1, category 3 even. >> c i ask you something? since we've been covering so much and talking about the republican convention in tampa, what are folks there in store for? >> well, as the storm pulls away, the conditions will actually improve. there are still tropical storm warnings for the southern two-thirds of florida, but the conditions are going to be improving tonight and tomorrow for most of the state of florida.

>> okay. thank you very much. we'll get another update from you as we need it. deputy director of the national hurricane center, mr. ed rapoport. want to go back to our meteorologist here in atlanta because chad myers, there's a swarm of earthquakes rattling southern california at this hour. more than 100 have been reported today? >> yeah, in a town you've probably never heard of, brauley, california. but people are still feeling some of these shakes in southern california. let's kind of update you here. here's mexicali, san diego, l.a. those red dots are the latest swarm. let's go right in here. you can see the land, see these crop circles here, irrigated land. all of these earthquakes very near this little town or call it a city if you like. monica, go right into that town. you can pull it in if you want to. see how many people live in this town. streets going this way, going this way, here are all the buildings and the homes. and they are feeling shaking. so far no reports of any

injuries or anything like that, but here's another thing we're getting from abc7. it's the needle. the need that will's moving and shaking. so every once in a while this needle begins to tremor and we have a 5.4, a 5.3 and a couple of 4.0s and a bunch of other 3.0s. usgs saying 100 earthquakes in this swarm they call it, a swarm like they haven't seen since the '70s. >> goodness. it's not called a richter. >> it is not. >> what is that scale? >> it just shows our age. >> i know. what is that scale called? >> this is the magnitude scale. i mean, this is an old paper. this is a graph. this is literally how it used to be. every time it bops up and down we're hoping it's not a bigger one. now that we have all these going, let's hope there's not a bigger one still coming. we want a bunch of aftershocks in the 2s and 3s, not in the 6s that keeps getting bigger.

>> gets the job done. illustrate what is's going on. thank you. if someone told you to get in a plane and fly directly into a hurricane, what would you say? some people do it for a living. we have the video and we're about to show you what tropical storm isaac looks like on the inside. don't forget, you can stay connected, watch cnn live on your computer. you can do it from work. magical. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

whether it's a hurricane or tropical storm, people usually try to head the other way. but hurricane hunters are flying right into isaac to get a closer look at how the storm is developing. that's video you're looking at from yesterday's mission over key west. the u.s. air force reserve crew flew around and over isaac. hours ago, another crew flew directly into the tropical storm. i want to bring in now dr. jim mcfadden from miami. dr. mcfadden, what did you learn from the most recent mission? how fast is isaac gaining strength? >> well, isaac is just passing the keys, and we have a plane in

the storm right at the moment. as a matter of fact, it just made its first pass through the center of the storm an is now just off the north coast of cuba. and it will make several more passes in the storm this evening before heading back to tampa, where its home base is. >> so do you get that information in real time, or does it bring the information back to you? >> no. we get it in real time. it's transmitted via satellite back to the ground. a lot of data, including doppler radar data, which is processed on board and transmitted back to the ground real time, which go into the models to help improve the intensity forecast. >> so tell us what you're seeing, then, the key measurements of barometric pressure, wind speed and so on and so forth. what is this telling you, the information you're getting now as this plane you said that's going over isaac right now? >> well, it's in isaac. we don't go over. isaac is a little too tall for us to go -- we go in about 8,000

feet, collecting our data. and it's still a tropical storm from what i see of the data on my computer here. but, you know, as we go through the day, the night, and into tomorrow, we have repeated flights with this same aircraft and different crew so, it will go back out at 4:00 in the morning and repeat this kind of mission, and then another one for tomorrow afternoon followed by another one at 4:00 a.m. the next morning until finally we catch the last flight up near the coastline of louisiana. >> okay. and, listen, you hold a record when it comes to hurricanes. 536 flights into the eyes of hurricanes? >> 563. >> 563. wow. where does this rank among the hurricanes you've seen, do you think? >> oh, this -- well, this is not a hurricane yet. >> the tropical storm that will build into a hurricane. you know what i mean. >> yeah, i do. and any hurricane is to be feared by people on the ground. and where this one is forecast

to go right now i worry very much. i hope that it does miss the warm pool in the gulf and that it doesn't intensify too much. that would be -- if it went to a category 2 or 3 that would be my worst fear. >> we appreciate you. thank you, jim mcfadden, okay? >> all right. you have a good day and thanks for having me. >> you, too. not everyone has fled to higher ground in the path of isaac. cnn ireporters whipped out their smartphone and cameras and caught isaac in the act. ♪ >> iound through design a way to tell stories, a way to bring people to new places. >> there's no reason why designs can't be obtainable, why a great design can't be something that everybody can have.

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chad myers is a very busy man today, so, chad, can you update us now where isaac is right now, the new projection, where it puts the storm in relation especially to new orleans? >> yeah. we have all that for you real quick. let's show you the core of the hurricane itself is now west of key west. so it's basically over for that area for core, for the eye wall. if there ever was. but we'll still see showers and thunderstorms across the western side of florida. onto the eastern side of florida. lightning. don't go out in lightning. lightning kills more people than about anything else. there you go. it's under the w in west, center of circulation right there. model guidance, where is it going? this has changed over the past couple days, hasn't it?

doesn't even look at florida anymore. one little model over destin, the rest somewhere new orleans, points east, points west. >> oh, boy. >> remember, don, this forecast is right through here. even though new orleans is here, you would still get that same surge all the way from dauphin island all the way through biloxi, which is right through there. just get the same type of surge that you would have if it ever got that big. here's the projected path, only projected to be a 2. i don't say that tongue-in-cheek, but it's not the 4 that katrina was. there's still a lot of ocean heat out there, 100 miles per hour coming onshore, anywhere from plaquemines to mobile, left to right of there, but this change, shifting left and right, one of the things i said a couple days ago is the best chance i can give you is the most i could probably guarantee you is this is going to change and it certainly is. now the people of louisiana have hurricane warnings and even for new orleans.

>> we keep saying 2, 4, what have you, but still the issue is really not how fast. it's a storm surge. >> correct. >> for new orleans. >> and the storm surge in katrina got so big because for a moment in time it was a category 5. it was sucking water in. it was sucking air in. it was just 150-mile-per-hour storm. and that bubble of water stayed with katrina as it washed right into bay st. louis, washed all the way to biloxi, knocked down basically the entire town. i was in biloxi last saturday. about half of those buildings still right along the ocean front are still not back. all those lots are for sale. can't even get an insurance policy to build something back there. i don't know. but what was a beautiful town is now still scarred and that's seven years later. >> absolutely. hopefully that won't happen this time. we're -- >> i know. >> i have to ask you a question. where are the storm chasers -- where are the lady storm chasers? every one i speak to is a guy. >> there's one. >> just one. >> her name is nicole.

you can jo go online and type i weather channel and nicole and see some controversy, too. she's been on our air. just to have to get her phone number. she doesn't give it out to most guys. >> thank you, chad. little levity. ireporters are getting up close and personal with tropical storm isaac. nick valencia in the cnn newsroom a couple floors below me is tracking the latest videos and photos sent in. what are the ireporters submitting? >> wear at the national desk. this is the tip of the sphere for our news-gathering operation. these editors are tirelessly working the phones, getting officials, latest video. we've been getting great video, most from south florida where tropical storm isaac has affected a lot of the residents there. take a look at this video sent in from our ireporter until boynton beach, bill curtin.

heavy rains and gusty winds earlier this morning. he's a veteran to this sort of thing. he's been through frances and wilma and jeanne, so he's not as scared as others there, but this is concerning for other residents in south florida. check out this video in miami beach, or a photo sent in from south beach, miami, something that i'm sure you thought you'd never see, an empty miami beach. this was sent to us from dominic. he shot this picture here and sent it in as he was walking on the beach earlier this morning, people deserting the beach as those bands of rain make their way in to south florida. probably, don, the most dramatic video we've seen we got yesterday from our affiliate wftv. look at this video from the "freedom of the seas" cruise line ship.

one passenger crazy enough to go out and challenge the wind and the rain. that ship experiencing 65-mile-per-hour heavy winds and rain. they made it back to port canaveral safe and sound, but some passengers trying to enjoy a last bit of vacation they have left. that passenger a little more adventurous than the rest. this is a small snippet of the ireports coming in. if you find yourself stuck in the eye of the storm, be careful. but we do want to hear from you. you can always upload your videos to ireport @cnn.com. we have a whole team of journalists vetting those photos. just a small example of what we have pouring in. >> when i saw you do that earlier, i thought it was you or one of the anchors saying what an idiot. it was the guy who was shooting the video, he says, "what an idiot." >> you could hear the commentary. >> ireport.com. tip of the sphere? no, you're not a politician. you're not allowed to do that. thank you.

isaac has caused monday's activities at the republican national convention to be suspended. now there are talks about even more changes. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today.

storm's not quite there yet, it's offshore, but ice playing havoc with the republicans' fans for the first day of the convention. the day's events called off and party officials have announced changes to the speaking schedule and said they might extend it, mark preston. he's our political director. what's going on? >> reporter: well, don, the republican convention officials have had to cram a four-day

event into a three-day event. tuesday night, wednesday night, thursday night will be the night of raw politics that we see coming here from tampa. that is, of course, if this storm doesn't crash into the gulf coast and then convention officials will have to reconsider what happens on wednesday night. but what we do know now, ann romney and chris christie will, in fact, speak on tuesday night. on wednesday night, paul ryan will form ormly accept the vice presidential nomination, condoleezza rice will speak on that night, and then on thursday night governor romney will formally accept the republican presidential nomination. but, yes, there was some talk that in fact they might extend this until friday or at least this was under some consideration. convention officials just said on a conference call, in fact, they're not even discussing that right now. they're not even thinking about it as a hypothetical. it would be a lot of problems. all the hotel rooms would have to be rebooked another night, all the airline flights would have to be rebooked as well. >> schedules. >> reporter: it would cost an incredible amount of money so i think that's highly unlikely.

>> and you have to reschedule everything. that would be a mess. but you know what, here's -- this may be another mess. a mess in a different way. let's be honest. you're a journalist, you're down there covering the convention, but if things start going crazy with this storm, that's what we're going to be covering, especially if lives are in danger. we'll be covering that. are people concerned about that overshadowing this big event? >> reporter: yeah. in fact, the convention officials actually addressed that. they are fully cog any zanlt of the fact that the news by the middle of the week could change to whatever happens to this storm, if it, in fact, intensifies and hits the gulf coast. they said right now they're still move eight head with the convention, planning tuesday night, wednesday night, thursday night. they want to try to get their message out. mitt romney right now as we speak was up in new hampshire working on his convention speech. they have to at least plan to do it, but they have to have the contingency plans in place, don, because you're right, there is no way you could hold a convention down here, a party

down here, especially if that hurricane goes into the gulf coast, goes into your home state of louisiana and starts causing some big destruction. >> absolutely. mark preston, thank you. stay safe down there. of course, cnn is a place for complete coverage of the republican national convention. tonight, a special in-depth look at mitt romney. romney revealed. 8:00 eastern. followed by wolf blitzer and the gang. i like that. wolf and the gang with a preview of the gop convention. and they're not leaving, either. we'll have coverage of the kongs rote throughout the week on cnn. now to the man of the week. what does this storm mean for soon-to-be republican nominee mitt romney? creamy peanut butter, and a rich dark chocolate flavor. plus, 10 grams of protein. so it's energy straight from nature to you. nature valley protein bars. [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is so soft you'll have to remind your family they can use less. it's made with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. plus you can use four times less.

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either you're there or in the club of an airport. elsie granderson is in new york. he is senior writer for espn. he's got the good lighting today. okay. good to see you guys. we haven't done this in a long time. >> i know. i thought you hated us. >> well, it's good tv even still. l.z., first day all but canceled. now they're shaking up the schedule. is the weather threatening to ruin mitt romney's big week? >> no. you know, i was thinking about the last republican convention. i was trying to think who were the speakers besides palin and john mccain, and i really struggled to find another speaker who impacted me or i thought about after those two. and i think this will be a very similar situation here. maybe chris christie will really resonate with people, but it's about ryan and mitt romney.

everything else is about being a big party. it's like the super bowl. i've covered the game for a number of years. the party, the party, the party. but at the end of the day it's about the game. in this situation, romney is the game. >> yeah. this is like a big pep rally where you get behind -- yeah. right. and then the election, leading up, i would say that's the game. will, a very similar question i asked mark preston two or three minutes ago but a little more nuanced. could this storm do more than change the plans of the convention? could it affect the overall race? candidates get a bump out of it, but if something big is going on with the storm and there's not as much coverage devoted to it, could it make a difference even in the race? >> well, yes, i do. i heard you talking to mark about that. to the extent this storm focuses the news cycle on other things further up the gulf coast, yeah, it pulls attention from what you accurately described is a pep rally or a four-day infomercial for the views and platforms and

politics that mitt romney and the republicans hope to put forward. it will be a distraction and that could have an impact on that introduction, that presentation to america. >> so, listen, i'm going to focus on you a little more on this, will, because you're a conservative here. i want to know, what do you want to hear from mitt romney and his acceptance speech and what do you expect him to say? >> here's what i want to hear. because we know these things are broad-themed events, i want to hear a message that focus on two thing, you, don lemon, me, will cain, lz, all us american, and second mitt romney himself. i want him to remind us who we are as americans, risk tarek, entrepreneurs, the people that built this massive and incredibly world leading economy and remind us of that and give us a sense of getting our confidence back. remind us, in fact, don, that we did build this. second, i want him to focus on

himself and say, look, here's my biography. at bane, this is what i did. i watched people like you build companies at staples and sports authority and steel dynamics. bt bain. and that is what i can say to it. and quickly, he wrote an editorial this week about what he learned at bane capital and tied it to people. get the feeling -- >> i get you, i get you. i want to ask you something else. do you think it was a -- let's be honest here. it was a hard sell, even for republicans, right? and they are obviously going to rally behind their candidate. he's get to win -- he has some winning over to do even from people there at the convention. it's not like everyone is going to be going, yay, mitt romney. he has to win over people at the

convention from his own party, no? >> yeah, to some extent there will be ron paul delegates there with their own agenda. he will be speaking to them as well. and to much of america, mitt romney has an introduction to make. and in the end, the overriding factor is how you feel about the past four years and that is how many, many, if not most americans feel. >> i got run. if you can give me ten seconds. what are democrats thinking about this convention? who what are they looking for? >> they are looking for gaffes, if i can sum it up quickly. something they can take to use in the campaign and spin it forward. >> that is true. >> not equal time this time. you are a conservative.

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our meteorologist chad myers gathering all the nifrks and here is here to share. what have you learned in. >> a quick recap, people are just tuning in, just getting home. tropical storm isaac, the track has shifted to the left to the west. closer to new orleans, not over new orleans but land fall here between the florida panhandle and maybe that is new iberia, lake charles. that is the cone. notice, the cone is getting smaller. as the storm gets closer, the cone may be ten miles wide. sheer what we will take. where the radar is now, where the storm is. here is key west right there. and then, that would be the circulation center right there. moving towards the north and northwest. now, for many, many days this

storm has interacted with significant land. haiti, the dr, cuba. big, tall countries, mountains torn up. now, there is nothing to get in its way. nothing to slow the intensification process down. i said, as soon as it gets to cat 1, it's going to go faster to cat 2. because you have the organizati organization. it becomes the heat engine. the eye goes up, hits the atmosphere. the in, the out. that's the way a hurricane turns into a v-8. right now, it's a sputtering 2 cycle. back out here to new orleans, all the models. >> right there to new orleans. >> farther to the west. >> yeah, oh, boy. chad, thank you. it's not all gloom and doom with the storm. key west preparing for the storm as only people in key west can do.

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