Article updated: 8/28/2012 10:53 AM

The trick for GOP: Being heard above Isaac’s gales

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Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus speaks to delegates during an abbreviated session the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Monday

Associated Press

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Tropical Storm Isaac forced the Republicans to do what the Democrats had already done voluntarily: shorten their national convention from four days to three. But the show, as they say, must go on. Political conventions are calibrated theater, after all, and as with any big show, random elements can cause chaos. As the GOP convenes in Tampa for a convention delayed by a major storm and clouded by the fraught, Katrina-scarred politics of major storms in general, what are audiences looking for from this gathering?