Republican National Convention

Until Ann Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stepped into the prime-time spotlight Tuesday night, the stage at the Republican National Convention was dominated by a parade of racial and ethnic minorities. The same could not be said about the delegates in the hall. As the United States has become an increasingly more diverse country, the Republican Party has maintained a distinctly pale hue. Still, the party can boast a number of black and Latino elected officials -- and a bunch of them were put in front of the TV cameras on the opening night of the Tampa confab.

If you're a Democrat, you're likely to be a fan of Google, Amazon.com and PBS, while Republicans bestow favor on Fox News Channel, Chick-fil-A and Johnson & Johnson. At least those are the findings of the consumer research firm YouGov in its annual report on the brands that people of different political persuasions like. Although Democrats and Republicans differ a great deal in their favorite brands, there is middle ground - members of both political groups enjoy Cheerios, Clorox and Craftsman.

When a powerful tropical storm sweeps close enough to wipe out the first day of the Republican National Convention, is it a sign of divine intervention? A small, but significant, segment of Republican voters believe that extreme weather is more than a random interaction of atmospheric forces. When hurricanes or droughts or earthquakes inflict suffering on humanity, these folks take it as a sign of God's punishment. What then do we make of the storm that is sweeping by Tampa? Is the Almighty angered because the party that claims to speak for devout Americans is about to nominate a Mormon and a Roman Catholic as their candidates for president and vice president?

No one expected Franklin Delano Roosevelt to show his wheelchair to the nation and pepper his speeches with details about his battle with polio. No campaign strategist ever thought to have Pat Nixon come onstage to talk about the homey details of her married life with Dick. When Dwight Eisenhower was nominated, no one thought to testify to his qualities as a father and husband; what mattered was that he beat the Germans at Normandy. At 2012's national political party conventions, though, self-revelation was a requirement.

It was an unexpected burst of glory, and the 1,600 students at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood were basking in it Friday. None of the youngsters knew for certain why a 50-foot-wide image of the front of their school was projected Thursday night behind Sen. John McCain as he accepted the Republican Party presidential nomination. But there were plenty of theories. Sixth-grader Joshua Popue offered the explanation most commonly being floated Friday both at the Irvine Avenue campus and in political circles: Somebody in the McCain campaign mistook Walter Reed Middle School for the military's troubled Walter Reed Army Medical Center when preparing the Republicans' high-tech video background wall.

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. - Professor Newt is heading to Tampa to school the delegates at the Republican National Convention. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a onetime college professor, plans to lead daily two-hour seminars called “Newt U” every day of the convention on rotating campuses in the region, the RNC announced Sunday. It's a reprise of the role - an academic and historian - that Gingrich relished playing on the campaign trail during his unsuccessful GOP primary bid. Each two-hour seminar is linked to that day's convention theme and features speakers, including Wisc.

Despite the rainy weather, Tampa, Fla., was good for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan; a bit less so for Clint Eastwood. As the cleaning crew sweeps up the confetti and burst balloons, here are the highlights of the 2012 Republican National Convention… Oddest use of prime time: Clint Eastwood's improvisation with an empty chair They seemed to love it inside the hall, but the folks in charge of keeping the program on schedule were going nuts...

TAMPA, Fla. - A little more than a year ago, Frank VanderSloot contributed $1million to a "super PAC" supporting Mitt Romney. Now, the Idaho-based health products executive is a sought-after donor at the Republican National Convention as he makes the rounds of independent groups backing the GOP ticket. On Monday, VanderSloot and his wife met privately for an hour and a half with Karl Rove, the former top advisor to President George W. Bush and the strategist for the GOP heavyweight group American Crossroads.

Television ratings for the Republican National Convention dropped again on Wednesday night, while ABC easily outdistanced its two rivals for the largest share of the dwindling audience. The A. C. Nielsen Co. reported that ABC had an average rating of 8.7 on the night Vice President George Bush won the party's nomination for the presidency. NBC and CBS tied with ratings of 6.7. The three-network total of 16.7 was down from 19.9 on Monday and 17.6 on Tuesday.

California Gov. George Deukmejian's big moment at the 1988 Republican National Convention turned out to be not his acceptance of the vice presidential nomination--just as he had long insisted--but a five-minute prime-time speech Tuesday night about law and order. Deukmejian had the personal misfortune, however, of speaking only a few hours after Vice President George Bush had announced the selection of Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle as his running mate.

CHARLOTTE , N.C. - Is it the Bill Clinton bounce? President Obama appears to be getting a lift from the Democratic National Convention, with his job approval rating hitting a 16-month high, according to the latest Gallup survey. The three-day tracking poll, in the field each of the days of the Democrats' convention in Charlotte, shows 52% now approve of Obama's performance, a one-day change of three percentage points, and up nine points since the end of the Republican National Convention.

An estimated 35.7 million people watched President Obama accept his party's nomination Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C., according to Nielsen. The audience for the prime-time coverage of the final night of the Democratic National Convention eclipsed the 30.3 million who tuned in last week to see Mitt Romney speak at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.  However, four years ago, an estimated 38.3 million viewers watched then-Sen....

Given the state of contemporary political discourse, "The Daily Show" rarely has to look very hard to find someone (or something) worthy of ridicule. Occasionally, though, a moment comes along that's impervious to Jon Stewart's satirical gaze, like Bill Clinton's deeply wonky yet riveting speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night. On Thursday's "Daily Show," Stewart began with a few obligatory jokes about the length of Clinton's remarks. A Giants fan, he grumbled that "this was not the event from last night I wanted to go into overtime," but from there it was all praise for Bubba.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Pausing briefly during his speech to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., Craig Romney told the delegates that it was his "privilege" to say a few words in Spanish. " Mi padre, Mitt Romney, es un hombre de familia ," he said. ("My father is a family man. ") In fluent if slightly halting Spanish, the 31-year-old said his father valued that the United States is a country of immigrants. " El ama a nuestra nacion ," he said. ("He loves our country.

It was a clash of titans, and Bill Clinton won. Wednesday night's prime-time coverage of the Democratic National Convention, which featured a fiery and finger-pointing address by former President Bill Clinton, attracted 25.1 million viewers, according to ratings giant Nielsen. The Democrats out-muscled the season opener of NFL football on NBC, which drew 23.9 million viewers. The Dallas Cowboys defeated the New York Giants on the field. The second night of the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., was off slightly from the opening night of the event, which faced significantly less competition on TV.  On Tuesday night, the convention showcased Michelle Obama and drew 26.2 million viewers.  The Democratic convention continues to draw a larger audience than last week's Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. The second night of coverage of the Republican National Convention, which featured Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP nominee for vice president, drew 21.94 million viewers.

An estimated 26.2 million people tuned in to watch the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen -- 17.7% more than watched the Republican convention last week. First Lady Michelle Obama was the headlining speaker for the opening night of the convention in Charlotte, N.C. A week ago Tuesday, the first night of coverage of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., 22.3 million people watched Ann Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Last Thursday, the final night of the Tampa convention, 33 million people watched Clint Eastwood and Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

George Bush now needs to throw away the canned speeches he has used as vice president "and go back and speak from the heart," as he did while running against Ronald Reagan in 1980, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said Wednesday.

Once upon a time, an idealistic group of Americans thought they could ban big-money givers from presidential politics. Being congressmen, they even passed a law about it. So much for laws. Earlier this summer, Democratic money chief Robert Farmer announced that he planned to raise $50 million from private donors to help elect presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis. GOP leaders cried foul. This week, they announced their response: They will try to raise $98 million.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.  - Michelle Obama wrapped her husband in the warm embrace of what she described as an ever-growing love. That may be the indelible moment from her speech to the Democratic National Convention on  Tuesday. But what was extraordinary about the 25-minute performance - which had Democrats here rising repeatedly in affirmation - was the way the first lady delivered a series of rapier thrusts at unnamed others, who she suggested did not have the president's moral core.

A blossoming feud between California Gov. Jerry Brown and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could bring a little fun back into politics. The spat began on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa during Christie's visit to the California delegation. Christie, who later in the week would underwhelm as the convention's keynote speaker, pointed out to the delegates he was a mere 14 years old when Brown won the Democratic primary in New Jersey way back in 1980. The trash-talking governor of the Garden State called Brown “an old retread” and implied Brown was chicken for sending his current tax hike proposal to the voters instead of pushing it through the legislature and taking the heat.