With Florida now under a state of emergency because of Tropical Storm Isaac, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released a statement Saturday evening that virtually cancels day one of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

First, Gov. Rick Scott announced he was giving up his Monday night stage time at the convention to focus on the storm, expected to reach the Florida Keys on Sunday.

"The Constitution does not need to be scrapped; it needs to be abided by," thundered Jim Clymer, Constitution Party vice presidential candidate and former party chairman, to a smattering of an audience at the 2012 Ron Paul Festival, as hundreds more people frequented the vendors in the neighboring Expo Hall.

Today, the 40th Republican National Convention assembles in hurricane-threatened Tampa, Fla.

WASHINGTON -- Conventions are the seventh-inning stretches of presidential politics, a pause to consider the interminable prelude and the coming climax.

Looking for the price-tag of the federal Affordable Care Act, analysts have released a report estimating that an expansion of the Medicaid program would cost the state $79.2 million during the 2016-17 fiscal year and that the costs would grow to $337.6 million by 2022-23.