Next Week You Need to Know About . . . the Republican National Convention

The US presidential election seems to last about 18 months, give or take a year, but it kicks into high gear on Monday when the Republican party holds its national convention in Tampa, Florida.

The national convention sees the formal nomination of the party’s presidential candidate, whereby delegates from each of the 50 states (and sundry territories such as Puerto Rico) cast their votes according to the results of the various primaries and caucuses that have been taking place since late last year. This year’s candidate-in-waiting is Mitt Romney.

More than 2,000 delegates will be making the trip to Florida, along with 15,000 journalists and broadcasters, and it gives Romney four days of blanket press coverage in which to launch the final, critical few months of his campaign, and to persuade the US public that he’s the right man for the big job. He’ll also hope that his vice-presidential pick Paul Ryan can stir up the party’s conservative base, which is less than enthusiastic about Romney.

Forget protesters and the possibility of another embarrassing Romney gaffe – the big concern for the convention is the threat posed by Tropical Storm Isaac, which is gaining strength as it crosses the Atlantic and could smack straight into the Tampa area early next week. If it does veer in that direction, The mayor of Tampa, Bob Buckhorn, has said he’s willing to pull the plug on the convention, at which point Isaac will no doubt be accused of shamelessly partisan storm-brewing.