1144 needed for nomination. Romney: 2061 Others: 202
From Fox News.
The weather-delayed Republican National Convention opened officially Tuesday afternoon, as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan arrived in town and got to work shifting Tampa’s focus from storm coverage to the job at hand — anointing them as the Republican standard-bearers.
And, weather-permitting, throwing one heck of a party.
Delegates have begun the roll call to formally nominate Romney for the presidency.
Romney’s wife Ann, upon landing in Tampa, immediately went to the convention site, the Tampa Bay Times Forum, for a walk-through ahead of her major speech Tuesday night. She did a quick sound-check, reading the opening of the Gettysburg Address from a teleprompter placed at the back of the room.
On the flight to Tampa, she described her speech as “heartfelt.”
By the time the convention resumed at 2 p.m. local time, after a one-day storm delay, the floor and the halls were filled with chatting delegates — no doubt ready for the line-up to get underway. The former first lady of Massachusetts is one of several big speakers on deck whose task is to rally the party around Mitt Romney, who is expected to be formally nominated on the floor late Tuesday afternoon.
With Mrs. Romney poised to tell the American public a bit about her husband’s personal side — and perhaps rebut the Democratic narrative that his candidacy is a threat to women — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in town preparing for his keynote.
Speaking to the Michigan delegation Tuesday morning, Christie joked that his staff had done “a fabulous job of lowering expectations.”
Far from it, the anticipation has been building around his speech, with the party relying on Christie to light a fire under delegates and viewers — and send everyone home eager to hear the rest of the Republican 2012 story from Ryan tomorrow and Romney himself on closing night.
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