TAMPA, Florida — Republicans moved Tuesday into the ritual of formally nominating Mitt Romney as their candidate to unseat President Barack Obama, watching anxiously as a tropical storm threatened to turn into a hurricane and hit New Orleans just as the first political speeches are made. Romney's wife, Ann, will be among the night's speakers, and she will show a more personal side of a candidate the Obama campaign has tried to paint as a big business titan out of touch with the struggles of average Americans. Romney will attend his wife's speech, Ann confirmed to reporters Tuesday morning. “It's going to be fun for him to be there." Polls show Romney and Obama running about even, but each man holds significant leads with voters in important subtexts that could sway the roughly 10 percent of Americans who say they haven't settled yet on one man or the other. Obama holds a big lead as the candidate who best relates to the needs of poor and middle-class Americans. That an advantage could come into sharper focus as Tropical Storm Isaac moves slowly toward the US Gulf Coast after forcing Monday's convention opening to be delayed. The storm was expected to come ashore late Tuesday or Wednesday somewhere near New Orleans. That resurrected the ghost of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city and killed 1,800 people exactly seven years ago. The slow response to the chaos put the presidency of Republican George W. Bush into a downward political spiral. Trying to balance leadership with campaigning, Obama delivered a brief update on Isaac from the White House before leaving on a three-state trip. “Now is not the time to tempt fate," he said. “You need to take this seriously." Partisanship had not subsided with Isaac's gathering strength. Republicans were determined to play to Romney's strengths this week. He is more highly regarded as the candidate who can restore the economy, the top issue for voters. Ultimately, it will up to Romney himself “to let the American people see who he is," said New Jersey's colorful governor, Chris Christie, who delivers the keynote address Tuesday. Meanwhile, Republican leaders will try to convince Americans that Obama is a failed president, unable to keep his promise to restore economic vitality and reduce stubbornly high unemployment — still at 8.3 percent three years after the Great Recession. Republicans are increasingly energized and influenced by the anti-tax, small-government tea party movement, whose members tend to see political moderation and compromise as akin to betrayal. But Romney thrilled conservatives by naming one of their favorites, congressman Paul Ryan, as his vice presidential running mate. Romney caused a brief stir over abortion when he said in a CBS television interview Monday that he opposes abortions except “in the case of rape and incest, and the health and life of the mother." — AP
