I arrived safely in Tampa earlier today. The weather is cloudy and windy with occasional rain. It appears as though Tropical Storm Issac has taken a more westerly direction and Tampa will not suffer a direct hit from this storm. However, the local officials are still concerned about flooding. Even though the storm is out in the Gulf, the counterclockwise winds from the storm are expected to push a fair amount of water up into Tampa Bay. This poses a problem for the convention area because it is only a few feet above sea level and floods fairly quickly. Just like a storm at the Jersey shore, the meteorologists are talking about the timing of the storm and the high tide, etc…

The Deleware County delegation is slowly but surely arriving. So far I have run into GOP chair Andy Reilly, Delegates/Alternate Delegates Tom and Debbie Danzi, Pattie Booker, Andy Lewis, Senator Pileggi, Sherrif Joe McGinn and Joe McGinn Jr. Chairman emeritus Tom Judge Sr. and retired Springfield leader Charlie Sexton are back in the saddle again telling war stories about their experiences at past conventions. I'm sure that once the convention gets underway we will make our presence felt here in Tampa.

Tonight's main event was the welcoming ceremony at Tropicana Field (best known as the field where the Phils beat the Rays in game 1 of the 2008 World Series). Monday's convention sessions have been postponed but one of the prominent speakers was scheduled to be former Rep. Artur Davis. Davis was elected to Congress from Alabama as a Democrat in 2002. A member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Davis was soon identified as a rising star within the Democratic Party. He "seconded" the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democrats' 2008 nominee, and even served as Obama's campaign National Co-Chairman. Like many Americans, Davis has become increasingly disillusioned with President Obama -- so disillusioned that he recently announced he had become a member of the Republican Party. Davis cited President Obama's agenda of punishing job creators with new taxes as a prime reason for his split with his party. 

Davis is not alone. In 2008, millions of Americans took President Obama at his word when he said he would repair our economy, balance our budget and unite our nation. Since then, we've seen our economy stagnate and our debt skyrocket. Davis is just one of the many moderate Democrats and independents to see that President Obama's agenda isn't working, and that we can do better. Those are exactly the voters that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan need to win in order to be successful.

As soon as I know about the remaining schedule I will let you know.