Republican National Convention Day 2, Which is Actually Day 1

Thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac (which wasn't nearly as bad as the forecasts) today is the first day of the convention. The Minnesota delegation is heading to the Tampa Bay Times Forum (home of the Tampa Bay Lightning) for a 2:00pm convention start. 

Convention proceedings might get a little interesting today because of some proposed changes to the party's nomination process for 2016. Some within GOP leadership want to change the rules in 2016 to give the party broad, sweeping powers to unilaterally nominate, bind, and vet national delegates from every state, instead of allowing these delegates to rise through the ranks naturally through local and state party conventions.

These rule changes would give the RNC the ability to stack the deck in favor of their preferrred candidate, without regard for the will of individual state parties. Assuming Romney wins the election, this would give the RNC the ability to squelch any attempts to nominate someone else for president in 2016.

This, ironically, comes from the party that allegedly stands against centralized government and supposedly champions the grassroots and local control in government.

Delegates from several states have worked together for the past few days to fight these new rules and retain local control over the delegate process by the grassroots. We'll see this afternoon if their results are successful.

Today is the first time I will see the convention hall, so I'll share pics later today or tomorrow.