Mitt Romney officially nominated as Republican Presidential Candidate

TAMPA, Fla. – Republican delegates opened their national convention Tuesday by officially nominating Mitt Romney as their candidate to unseat President Barack Obama.

The Republican National Convention aimed at bringing the party together behind Romney and pitching him to a national audience, especially key independent voters, has shrunk to a three-day affair because of the storm. Monday’s planned opening was symbolic and over in minutes.

Romney’s wife, Ann, addressed the convention Tuesday night.

Mitt Romney makes his own speech Thursday.

Polls show Romney and Obama running about even, but each man holds significant leads with voters in important areas that could sway the roughly 10 per cent 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 Isaac storms ashore near New Orleans, resurrecting 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 warned the public. “You need to take this seriously.”

Romney is more highly regarded as the candidate who can restore the economy, the top issue for voters. Now he must reach out not only to independent voters but to more conservative Republicans who are wary of his more moderate views on abortion and other social issues.

Ultimately, it will be up to Romney “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 per cent three years after the Great Recession.

Republicans have been 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. Romney thrilled conservatives by naming one of their favourites, congressman Paul Ryan, as his vice-presidential running mate.

Romney’s acceptance speech Thursday night will be the highlight of the convention. Ryan delivers his acceptance speech Wednesday.

Democrats hold their convention next week. Obama and his party will intensify attacks on Romney’s business experience, claiming that the private equity firm he once headed, Bain Capital, made a fortune for investors while bankrupting some companies and laying off workers.

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