the news nation is following two big stories right now. in less than 24 hours isaac, which was just upgraded to a category 1 hurricane, is expected to slam into the louisiana gulf coast with flooding rains and damaging winds. meantime, the delayed republican national convention is minutes away from starting for the day. it began with the official role call of the states to nominate mitt romney for president. good day to everyone there. i'm tamron hall live in new orleans. right now we are watching another of the outer bands of hurricane isaac rolling in. i just got information from the army corps of engineers that this actually may be a blessing in disguise. the bands come and then they stop. that will give the pump system in this community time to work. we'll have much more on that, but in the meantime, let get to craig melvin.

just as tamron mentioned there, the chairman of the republican national committee about to gather the convention. let's listen to reincepreibus. >> let's give them a round warm welcome. [ applause ] >> forward march.

>> halt. left face. >> as we watch the introduction of the colors there, again, the delayed convention just getting started here. we are expecting a number of things to hear, the role call being the highlight this afternoon. then, of course, tonight the speeches. ann romney expected to make the self-sell. chris christie expected to make the hard-sell. but john boehner, rick santorum, also the gop will have a lot of diversity. a lot of its diversity on display tonight. a number of the speakers, minorities inside the gop, let's listen to the pledge. >> thank you. it is my privilege to introduce tim basketballbabcook, former governor of montana and tom hogan, a marine who fought in korea to lead in the pledge of

allegiance. please give both of these american heroes a warm welcome. [ applause ] >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> a nationally recognized singer, please welcome phillip

alongi who will perform the "national anthem." ♪ o say can you see ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ through the perilous fight ♪ o' er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ and the rocket's red glare

♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ o say does that star spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave noeds ♪

>> with that the first full day of the republican national convention is underway in tampa, florida. we will, of course, keep you up to speed and up-to-date on all that's happening there. but right now let's go back to the breaking news on hurricane isaac. tamron hall standing by in new orleans with the very latest. hey, there, tamron. >> reporter: hi, craig. as we mentioned, this is the big breaking story. this is the story that could impact lives. we know hurricane isaac has already been a deadly storm. president obama has approved federal disaster relief funds for the state of louisiana, but politics perhaps as usual, maybe. governor bobby jindal says that direct help with emergency cost is not enough. in a letter to the obama administration, governor jindal said he was looking for the federal government to reimburse the state for all the emergency expenses. the white house has not yet responded to the governor's letter, but today president obama urged residents in affected areas to listen to their local officials and to evacuate if told to do so.

>> we are dealing with a big storm and there could be significant flooding and other damage across a large area. now is not the time to tempt fate. now is not the time to dismiss official warnings. you need to take this seriously. >> reporter: the wnbc meteorologist rafael miranda is standing by. so let me read the latest information, rafael. i know you have it as well here, but hurricane isaac is moving northeastward told the mouth of the mississippi. extensive inland flooding is possible. the head of the national hurricane center is also saying again the same words that the president utters, bobby jindal said the same thing, people should not take this lightly. >> that's right, tamron. even though it's only a category 1 hurks, still a very dangerous storm. a multi-faceted hurricane with several components to worry about. of course, the winds, 75 miles per hour at this hour capable of producing damage. but it is also that slow northwest motion you mentioned, 10 miles per hour is going to

keep all the heavy rain over the same spots for several days. we'll be talking about this rain into thursday morning. so let's take a look at the current stats as of the very latest advisory. winds sustained at 75 miles per hour. now it is a category 1 hurricane. as we expected. we had to wait a while, but finally isaac did become a hurricane and the strong motion northwest 10 miles per hour creeping along the gulf of mexico. we are watching as isaac becomes better organized throughout the day. the convection now trying to wrap around the center of circulation. we are seeing hints of the sloppy eye forming. take a look at the heavy rain still offshore. tamron has been sighing rain bands move in and out of new orleans, but the heaviest bands are still several miles offshore. that will continue to sweep in. we also have a severe weather threat, a tornado watch is in effect until 7:00 central time for new orleans. much of the gulf coast, including biloxi, severe weather possible there. we have seen tornado warnings come and go. and this is just the very beginning. we'll be dealing with isaac as

it makes landfall later tonight as a category 1 hurricane in southeast louisiana. tamron? >> reporter: rafael, thank you so very much. isaac will put new orleans new $15 billion levee system to the test for the first time since katrina. one major problem that we are telling you about, the levee is only eight feet well above the six-foot storm surge expected in some areas. ken holder is with the army corps of engineers. ken, i want to bring you in here, it is interesting, what we experienced, we started the show ten minutes ago with a band of rain that came through. and you say that this break we're seeing right now may be a blessing in disguise here. >> it absolutely is. first off, any time you find a tropical storm or hurricane, you'll deal with feeder bands of rain. the feeder bands help the interior drainage system. what happens with the pump system is the city has pumps and we have pumps that pump out the canals and pump out to lake pontchartrain.

the city pumps it out to us and we move it to lake pontchartrain. none of the canals we have were there when we had katrina. so the idea is water comes in and comes out to us. we drop the gate. the storm surge cannot enter the city anymore and we pump it out from there. >> reporter: but you have concern if this storm does hover over this area, particularly jefferson parish, placquemines parish, they won't be able to pump the water out if you're seeing three to four inches an hour come down. >> if it were sustained that's when we would really start to have -- $$and that's a possibility. >> it is a possibility. the army corps of engineers has people co-located as well with the cities and parishes to sync our pumping out. >> reporter: the big question is will the levees hold up? why should we have confidence in the army corps of engineers and what's there seven years ago

almost to the day later? >> i have to tell you what happened dur kag trina, what you had was a system in name only. there was not really a system in place. parts and pieces were in place. congress, two administrations verified the need and made the commitment to the men and women of louisiana and new orleans to make it and get it right. they gave us all the money upfront. with that we built the entire system that's going to stand. >> reporter: we had pictures down in the lower ninth ward and i was at the 17th street canal, both infamous locations we will never forget there, but i know also in placquemines parish it is not complete. the full project is not done. there's still, as i understand, about a billion dollars still left to be spent? >> there's $4 billion to be spent throughout the system and in different places. >> reporter: why has the money not been spent? >> the whole system is finished and ready to go. we have some construction gaps and construction closures we have to do. the system itself is ready to battle a 100-year storm.

>> reporter: i can tell in your confidence we are in the right spot. i appreciate you coming on an answering the questions. these are tough questions that need to be answered. >> please have us back anymore. >> reporter: absolutely. thank you for your time, ken holder. the army corps of engineers is fanned out. we also know all the emergency personnel, police officers, ambulance, what they have done is dispersed them evenly throughout the region in that you would instantly think perhaps people who are near the levee, the unprotected area would be the first on their minds, but they know with the tornadoes that a tornado can pop up anywhere. they need to have emergency personnel fanned out throughout the area. new orleans' jefferson parish is one of the parishes that has certainly taken a proactive approach ordering thousands of people to evacuate from the low-lying areas outside the hurricane protection levee system. joining me now is jefferson parish john young back with us. thank you again for coming on. you heard ken holder there with

the army corps of engineers expressing the same confidence i have heard from you as well. he explained the pump situation, but he feels if we don't get a storm that just sitsson new orleans that you'll be okay and the people here who are deciding to hunker down will be okay as well. >> i agree with what ken holder said. the pumps are designed to drain one inch per hour and a half inch every hour after that. last year with tropical storm lee it dumped 14 to 15 inches of rain on the east bank and west bank of jefferson, but we were able to keep up with it. we obviously had flooding in the streets but no homes or businesses flooded because when the bands came through a lot of the pumps had the opportunity to catch up. what we have done to prepare for that is the pump systems are fully operational and operating 24/7, fully manned and staffed. the pump operators will remain in the pumping stations with draining our canals to create additional storage capacity and

drains to remove obstructions. so we're ready. >> reporter: okay. what is this shelter situation in your area? you had the mandatory evacuation, not all communities have had a mandatory evacuation? >> right. well, and again, jefferson par sish a very large parish. just to clarify that, we have only had a mandatory evacuation for those communities outside of the levee protection system you were talking about with ken. that's about 9,000 people. we have grand isle and grand point, those are mandatory evacuations. some people chose to heed that and some chose to stay and hunker down. i think we have 100 people out of 1,500 people left in grand isle. we removed the people that didn't want to leave and provided transportation for them if they needed it and moved them to shelters above the eye 10 system and above baton rouge.

>> we talked about this earlier in the day, you had a lot of rain in this area for the past several weeks. the ground is saturated. with the additional rain, if it is three to four inches or seven inches, that means drowned or downed trees and power lines. you could also see folks without power. >> right. we are now facing three primary threats. one, those areas outside the levee protection system, coastal and tidal flooding. those within the levee protection system, flooding from rainfall, excessive rainfall in short periods of time. and third, the entire parish, metropolitan power outages. people need to be aware of that. those with a shelter in place, they need to have the necessary food and water, batteries and things of that nature, hurricane survival kits to hunker down over several days because its could be several days until power is restored. but people down here understand that. we have been through this before and they know that power outages

are going to be an expectation. >> all right. john young, thank you very much. the president of jefferson parish here in this area. thank you so much. let me go back to craig, one observation i can share here, at least when i've been talking with local authorities, if they are a parish president or someone from the army corps of engineers like ken holder, one of the criticisms was that a lot of local officials at the time, even then president george w. bush, the fema chief at that time, were seen as inept and people reacted after the storm came through. i can certainly say that just about every person we called has provided up-to-date information. they know the mistakes that were made and want to be on the front of the storm whatever it turns out to be. so if i can use the word refreshing in the midst of this, we don't know what's coming in the next several hours. that's a part of our on ovation. >> tamron hall, all eyes on new orleans today and tonight. thank you, again, i appreciate that.

we'll come back to you in a few minutes. coming up on "news nation," the republican national convention gets down to business. ann romney and chris christie, what can we expect from both? our political panel weighs in on the other side of this break. first, tamron hall ran into a tourist from france who was apparently riding out hurricane isaac in new orleans. >> are you visiting? >> yes, i'm visiting from france. >> you're from france and here during the storm? >> yes. >> are you worried you are visiting from another country? >> no, no. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up!

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the first full day of the republican national convention is now underway in tampa, florida. it was gavel to order at the top of the hour. this afternoon the convention

will hear a series of committee reports and speeches. then the highlight of this afternoon's session, role calls of the states to officially nominate mitt romney for president and paul ryan for vice president. then tonight's session will be highlighted by the speech by mitt romney's wife ann followed by the keynote address by new jersey governor chris christie. joining me now our political panel, nbc produce and nbc strategist danny vargis, good afternoon to both of you. >> good afternoon, craig. >> let's start with ann romney's speech tonight. we just saw her a short time ago at the podium doing the walk-through at the convention center. danny, her job tonight is to humanize her husband who has been perceived by many, even though who support him, perceived by many as wooden and awkward. how does she go about doing that? >> i believe it will be interesting. frankly, she'll be introduced by the first lady of puerto rico,

which will serve to humanize the republican party. but mrs. romney's job is to describe mitt romney as the person she's known for the majority of his and her life. they have basically grown up together. she's seen every side of him during good times and bad times. the man who was there for her through her illnesses. a person who does have compassion, a person who does have a heart, a person who cares about the community and his neighbors. i think that's her job, to be able to introduce mitt romney to the public in a way that has not taken place yet. she's got an incredibly important role to introduce mitt romney to the american public as a person they can like and trust, that they can feel good about voting for. >> sandra, ann romney also trying to improve her husband's standing among women voters, who in the latest nbc news/wall street journal poll shows overwhelmingly support president obama. romney talked in an interview yesterday abut the differences between the republican platform and his views on abortion. take a listen. i want to talk about it on the

other side. >> my position has been clear throughout this campaign. i'm in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest and the health and life of the mother but recognize, this is the decision that will be made by the supreme court. the democrats try to make this a political issue every four years, but this is a matter of the courts. it's been settled for some time in the courts. >> it's interesting the republican platforms call for a blanket of abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. is that still going to be a major problem for mitt romney? >> it's interesting because they are trying to thread the needle by saying candidate romney if elected president, i know paul ryan said it will be romney's policies which are enacted, so that's how they are trying to get to that point. and it is significant because for women the abortion issue, especially if you take your extreme views, is tied to reproductive rights and birth control, which most women

approve. so it's a very thin line that they have to try to maintain and be careful with voters on that. >> danny, one of the thing that is struck me about the lineup of speakers tonight, we'll hear from ted cruz, the senate candidate from texas. nicki hailey, tand we'll hear te first black mayor in utah, also vying to become the first female republican in congress. also the first hispanic governor in this country's history. the gop, are they deliberately rolling out the minorities on the first night to send a message? >> and samuel rodriguez is doing the benediction. so i think part of the message here is to show that the republican party, contrary to what the media may portray us to be, the republican party remains a big ten party. we have a lot of leadership roles within the party

apparatus, major officials are people of color, latinos and african-americans and folks of all stripes are coming together behind the basic notion of the republican party and republican itch, which is limited government, individual liberties, the types of things we all hold true. there might be differences in particular issues and policy stances, but in terms of making sure we are building an economy thriving and growing and helping all americans succeed, i think that's the basic mess toonlg be able to show that the republican party is inclusive and welcoming and it needs all oars in the water to move us forward. >> sandra, before we get out of here, what are you looking to hear tonight? >> it's interesting, i recognize what danny is saying but the polls still put two to one of obama favored by latino voters. and there's only 10% in a latino-tracking poll released yesterday with 10% with a favorable rating to romney. they have a lot of work to do

with the latino vote. i think that's where we'll be closely looking at tonight. >> we should also note mr. romney standing among black voters is virtually non-existent. we'll have to leave it there. danny, sandra, we'll pick things back up later. coming up, we'll go back live to new orleans and tamron hall where the city is awaiting the arrival of hurricane isaac. there's a live look. we'll also check in with mississippi where all the coastal casinos have been shut down in preparation for the storm. first, here's a look at a boarded up house in jefferson parish, louisiana, where some residents are asking for prayers to spare them from isaac. stay with news nation. t g. every bite goes above and beyond the call of deliciousness. that's a big 10-4 kosher. with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog. you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person,

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output. and nearly 67% of natural gas production in the gulf has also been shut down. the gulf accounts for 23% of this country's daily oil output. these are new details coming in. we'll be right back with more live coverage from new orleans and the gulf coast. [ music ay indiinct con thco ody [ music ay s et indiinct con manc e' be b [ music ay s et indiifohacon or slanil on every one of our carda reminder...ate. that before this date, we have to exceed expectations. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient

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joining me. brian, i was watching the local news coverage here, watching your coverage as well, and everyone is remarking on how the forward push of this storm, i believe it was 7 miles per hour, late last night it was 12, and it is moving slowly here. >> not only is it moving forward slowly, tamron, but it is huge. you have both those things happening and it welcome will be a long, long time for the storm to get by one point. we have not seen this in a long point. there in new orleans, 24 to 36 hours of winds over 40 miles an hour. so let me bring you up-to-date here on what about exactly where the storm is now. there you see 75-mile-an-hour hurricane with the pressure quite low, so the pressure is low enough to support a stronger storm. but it is so big that very often you have low pressures with lower wind speeds in big storms. and it is about 50 miles off the tip there of louisiana. and officially moving northwest at 10, but signs that it is

continuing to slow down. here's the radar now out of new orleans. and there is the center. and here is the worst weather. so where you see the oranges on the radar, that's the worst weather. there's also very bad weather behind it, but it is out of radar range. i'm going to look at a radar simulation. this is a future radar. it's an rpm computer simulation we run here at the weather channel. watch the oranges and reds. there we are on this afternoon. here it comes slowly. here we are this evening at 6:00, 7:00 eastern, here we are with midnight. according to the simulation, the center is still down here. a very gusty band of wind over the city there. not quite to mississippi yet. and the bad weather remains offshore. that's at midnight tonight. now, overnight you can see it creeping ever-so-much closer. by the early morning hours, now the bad weather is coming in to the southern new orleans suburbs. the center is just on the shore to the southwest of the city.

and then during the morning hours tomorrow up until noon eastern time, late morning central time there, now the really bad weather is coming in. so we have this evening and then all day tomorrow for extremely gusty weather and very heavy rain, up to 20 inches in the new orleans area. tamron? >> all right, thank you, bryan. at one point the storm was predicted to strike as a category 2 hurricane. richard nod is here, the president and other leaders said do not take this storm lightly. it's a category 1, but don't assume this is nothing. >> absolutely not. it is not just the fact that this is a dangerous storm no matter what size it is, but this is a very large hurricane. and a large slow-moving one at that. the large size poses the big storm surge hazard. the larger storms are much more

capable of pushing the ocean water toward the coastline. that's why we still think 6 to 12 feet of storm surge flooding aboveground level could happen in coastal areas of mississippi and southeastern louisiana. then the large slow-moving storm will dump a lot of rain that will take up to a couple of days for it to pass by the location from the time the rain starts to the time the rain ends. we could see up to 20 inches in localized spots out of this to cause serious flooding concerns. flash flooding and also down the road river flooding. all this could happen near the coast and inland. inland flooding way up into inland areas that don't always think of hurricanes being a problem for them. >> and we just heard from bryan who took us through the hour-by-hour of what to expect. so this time tomorrow local time, what do you anticipate will be the scenario? >> well, you're still going to have a large storm affecting a lot of people. it will be in the midst of many, many hours of strong winds,

potentially damaging winds, and heavy rains. hopefully they are taking shelter out of flood-prone areas instructed by emergency management officials and not trying to venture out between bands where the weather could temporarily be a little better because the next band will be behind it. tonight, tomorrow and into the following night will be a long period of really bad weather. again, it's going to go way inland and it could take quite a while for the winds to die down. and it will take longer for the rain to stop falling in some spots. >> and what you just explained describes what we are seeing now. we are getting the single band of wind and then we have a break and then it resumes. i greatly appreciate your time. i don't know if you can see the shot behind me, but you may be wondering, there's a crate that was wheeled out earlier in the day. and inside of it is basically the flood wall they put around the hotel that we are near in the french quarter. so up until the last few hours, quite honestly, these kinds of

crates and boarding up windows was taking place despite the fact that yesterday, quite honestly, city officials said to get to the location where you need to be to hunker down for this. the storm is moving a lot slower than anticipated, so the few people like that man i interviewed earlier on canal street not far from here do have extra time to get out of here safely. in the meantime, governor robert bentley just lifted a mandatory evacuation order for coastal counties in alabama. but he says voluntary evacuations are still in effect. the alabama coast is now under a tropical storm warning downgraded from a hurricane warning. in the resort town of gulf shores, store shelves are empty. batteries, gasoline cans, many people spent the weekend boarding up windows and doors and packing in the supplies. let's go to mississippi now where the biloxi airport just shut down. the mississippi gaming commission also ordered all coastal casinos to close. paul goodloe is live in

gulfport. what's the latest from there? >> reporter: well, here in gulfport we have been seeing a couple bands of rain come through, but the problem is we are also seeing blue sky as well. it has a lot of people out here trying to survey the situation. behind me, a very angry and agitated gulf of mexico. normally it is almost bathtub smooth, but with a couple days of now hurricane isaac churning in the gulf of mexico, the winds have kicked up a lot of waves and are crashing on in here. i talked to the port master here, he said a three-foot rise in the gulf of mexico waters here. the forecast for the storm surge is 6 to 12 feet, which should take us pretty close to the seawall here, but it should not overtop the wall or the beach boulevard that i'm standing in front of. but overall, it has had a significant impact on this entire coastline here of mississippi. a lot of people that know this area love this area for the beach and the casinos. there are 12 casinos up and down the mississippi coast. three are now closed because of

the approach of hurricane isaac. there are still several others open, but the concern is now what's going to happen. i'm looking eastward toward biloxi and seeing fewer and fewer buildings because we are having one of the heavier rain bands come this way. the entire coastline of mississippi here eastward toward mobile is under a tornado watch. any time you have a tropical storm or hurricane making landfall, you have the risk of spin rotation. basically the risk is very high for tornadoes. you will see the gustier winds coming in with the rain bands. we'll probably see another one come in shortly. the concern is we have people here gawking at this point, but hopefully they will go away and seek she felt we are the heavier rain bands and the stronger winds coming in as we head over the next 24 hours. tamron? >> thank you very much, paul. by the way, just got this in. president obama signs mississippi's emergency declaration. we saw the same thing for

louisiana as well. let me send it back to my colleague, craig melvin, at the nbc world headquarters. holding it down in new york, thanks a lot. strange and reassuring for all of us familiar with that part of new orleans where you are. strange but reassuring to see the streets so empty behind you. back to politics now. president obama doing something right now that a lot of candidates don't do. he's campaigning while the opposition holds its convention. the president just started a two-day swing through college campuses in battleground states. he is trying to energize young voters, the same voters who helped him win four years ago. he started speaking minutes ago at iowa state university. >> just over two months from now, for the first time in most of your lives, you will get a chance to pick a president. and -- the truth is, you've got more at stake in this election than just about anybody. >> the president started by

saying americans stand ready to help people along the gulf coast recover if hurricane isaac delivers a stiff blow. later today the president will visit colorado state university in ft. collins. then tomorrow he heads to the university of virginia in charlottesville. coming up, "meet the press" moderator david gregory joins me with today's press pass interview to preview tonight's big rnc speeches. first, people in new orleans are optimistic about the coming storm, but they also want to make sure those in need get the help that they need. tamron hall witnessed the spirit of new orleans today while walking, excuse me, talking to people while they repair for isaac. >> are you worried about this storm? >> no, i'm not. i'm not. >> but you were concerned enough to come down to help folks down here. >> yeah, yeah. because i've been having this food that i wanted to give to some homeless folks if they were out and about. yeah.

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now back to tampa, florida, where the rnc convention is in full swing. mitt romney and paul ryan both arrived in tampa a few hours ago. meanwhile, msnbc's david gregory, the moderator of "meet the press" is joining us live from the convention site. david, you talked to someone no stranger to rnc conventions. >> that's right, johnson is an outspoken campaigner for the republican campaign. i talked to him earlier today. this is someone who is no stranger to the conventions. former white house chiefs of staff. and it was a pretty lively discussion for the romney campaign at this convention. here's part of this conversat n

conversation. if this is a successful night, what things will we see out of the two speeches? >> one will be hot, one will be cool. governor christie will talk about what's wrong with america today and focusing on the governor's capacity to fix problems and underscoring the need of a failed presidency to be repaired by somebody who knows how to repair it. and ann will talk about mitt romney the person, i suspect. i haven't seen either of the speeches, by i suspect she'll talk about mitt, the person, and try to give a more personal context to why mitt romney decided to go through what is really a grueling process, running for president and then serving and fixing the country. >> it seems like governor romney has twin challenges. there's something mysterious about him to a lot of people, he's not an easy guy to get to know. on the other hand, is he a likable guy, somebody you can identify with? the president seems to have an advantage on that. do you think that's something

she can address or does he have to address it himself? >> that's talk about why likable is an issue at all. you have a broken pipe in the kitchen, you have a choice between two plumbers, one is likable and incompetent, the other is dryer in his conversation and knows what he's doing. who are you going to hire? competence over likable. >> competence doesn't always sell but -- >> that's a different debate. >> but that is interesting, it seems to be the thrust to say, look, he may not light up this room, but he's a fix-it guy. >> look, people are hurting. people have no jobs. people are underemployed. they see their kids and grandkids graduating from college and not finding any work. they don't want that to continue. there are lots of nice people i have never hired to run a lemonade stand, and that's president obama. i wouldn't hire him to run a lemonade stand. >> the issue that this comes down to, obviously governor

romney wants to talk a lot about the economy. and just what you're talking about, who can turn it around, and yet there seem to be, they are not side issues because they are core demographic issues affecting the party. i spoke to former governor jeb bush about standing among hispani hispanics, a real liability for the party, among women, the gender gap is obviously hurting the republicans right now. what can ann romney do to address those things? what can mitt romney do to address the issues? >> the party understands we have to continue what's been a long effort to reach minority groups like the hispanics. the hispanics are very entrepreneurial. to their credit, they probably have a better record of being entrepreneurs than some second, third and fourth-generation americans here. they like to create jobs for themselves and they are willing to take the risks. and they came to this country for a reason. the party is trying to focus on that aspect. and i think it's beginning to

resonate. >> where is it resonating? obama has two-thirds of the vote. >> there is going to be a better turnout for hispanics than president obama, to the republicans than president obama realizes. they will cash their vote and then we'll talk about the numbers. >> based on what? rupert murdoch says romney has to come out with a path for citizen ship. that's not where the republican party is right now. >> that is not true. we have to do a better job on guest passes for workers and the expansion and commitment to really expand that. there's the aspect of the platform that addresses easing the process on visas so we retain talented folks who come to study and encourage them to stay here. so the party is moving in the right direction. you're not going to solve the immigration problem in the hot rhetoric of a presidential campaign. and the travesty of all of this is that president obama sat on

his hands for four years before he did anything as a president to make it easier for some of the young people who through no fault of their own are in the united states and by virtue of education and service in the military, a lot of us fail that they have earned the right to stay here. >> john sinunu in the press pass conversation today. let me say a word about the highly-anticipated speeches tonight. ann romney according to campaign officials will tell a very personal story about the man she's known for so long and loves so dearly. her husband. about how they met, her own m.s., about him as a father and a grandfather. it's something that only she can do and offer a note of the personal. and christie, craig, will also talk about principle compromise. i don't know how much we'll hear about compromise in the convention, but it's a theme he wants to address tonight in what he argues mitt romney is capable

of. >> hot and cold, appreciate that, sir. you can see david's full interview on the "meet the press" blog. we will be right back. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now.

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