Blogging the Republican National Convention—Day 1

Jill Jungling, a Twin Cities-based freelance journalist, reports for Physics Today Online on the science-related events at this week’s Republican National Convention.

Nuclear power, climate change, alternative energy, drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas. Those are among the highest-profile science issues that John McCain and the GOP are expected to tackle this week as the Republican National Convention opened Monday in St. Paul, Minnesota’s capital city, for a four-day run.

But on Monday, meteorology dominated the day as wary GOP officials kept watch on Hurricane Gustav, scaling back opening-day business as protesters marched through the streets. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had been expected, but they canceled as fears rose that Gustav could be as devastating as Hurricane Katrina. Instead, the kickoff day was one for political spouses, with Laura Bush and Cindy McCain expected to appear before delegates, and for some of the less glamorous business of a convention to take center stage. Delegates descended on St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center to get their credentials and to consider the party’s platform.

Building unity on drilling, global warming

Much of the platform work had been done late last week across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, where GOP officials smoothed language and polished up the largely symbolic 48-page document ) that the delegates will consider. Part of those final touches involved climate change. Party officials softened the platform from its more questioning state to somewhat align it with McCain’s views that global warming is manmade. The final document now calls for increasing America’s energy supply and decreasing the nation’s long-term demand for oil so that the country is “well-positioned to address the challenge of global warming.”

Whether the party squares up McCain’s opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with the opposing view of his vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, the current Alaska governor, is something to watch for when both candidates are expected to address the convention later this week. McCain, who has started to express willingness to compromise on ANWR drilling, has also called for ramping up the nation’s use of nuclear energy. His speech, and Palin’s, whose husband is a BP employee, will come on the heels of the moderate handling of energy policy that the nation saw last week in Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver Obama called for energy independence and investment in alternative fuels, but he did not offer up strong language on global warming, surprising some political observers. Palin is considered more skeptical of global warming than McCain and has questioned whether human impact is responsible for some of the changes scientists have documented.

Issues for protesters

Monday was expected to be the peak day for protesters. Late Monday morning a much smaller than anticipated crowd gathered in 90° heat on a grassy hill in front of Minnesota’s state capitol. Upward of 50,000 people had been expected to march, something that had spurred local law enforcement to spend months and millions of dollars on security. It was clear by midafternoon that the numbers were nowhere near that. Officials first estimated that 10,000 were marching on the Xcel Center, then a revised count put it at about 2000. For the most part, the march was uneventful; skirmishes with the police were few, although there had been some arrests at a previous march over the weekend and preemptive raids at a number of houses on Saturday.

An antiwar vibe and signs dominated both the rally and the march, but protesters embraced in traditional and creative ways a number of other causes. High on the capitol’s lawn, bands belted out war protest songs. Slogans on protester signs included the following:- “Beware of Weapons of Mass Destruction"- “War Is Not Green.’'

Fran Hanlon of Austin, Texas, donned a negligee, pink glittery cap, and beauty-queen-style sash proclaiming her “Miss Clean Air’’ for the rally. Mary Nelson of Chicago toted a sign whose pink foam letters said, “End Poverty, End War, End Warming.’'

Nelson said protesters may be focusing on the war, but the nation’s energy policy is inextricably linked to that. “We went to war for oil, as far as I’m concerned.’' She added that government needs to encourage investment in renewable energy and that more money is needed to clean up areas contaminated by industry; “There are good jobs in the clean-up process.’' Nelson said. She’s also concerned about McCain’s push for more nuclear power plants.

McCain’s choice of Palin as his running mate left many protesters concerned. “I think she’s really scary,’' said Liz Rogness, a teacher from St. Paul who noted Palin’s positions on drilling in the Arctic and global warming.

Scott Walters and Kim Hunter, also of St. Paul, brought elaborate signs to the rally. Walters noted with a grin that his signs had already irritated Republican National Committee (RNC) officials who happened to be using the same Kinko’s for other convention-related business.

Walters and Hunter agreed the causes they’d highlighted on their signs didn’t include a lot of science, though Hunter pointed out that one of them had food safety highlighted. Still, Walters said, “I think energy policy’s the sleeper issue.’'

Too scary for an airport

Walters and Hunter are both members of the Union of Concerned Scientists. About a week ago, an antinuclear weapons advertisement that the organization had paid to display at the airport was taken down by Clear Channel Communications, which owns the billboard. The poster features an image of downtown Minneapolis with target cross hairs superimposed on it. “When only one nuclear bomb could destroy a city like Minneapolis,” the headline reads, “we don’t need 6,000.” The subhead states: “Senator McCain: It’s time to get serious about reducing the nuclear threat.” A similar billboard was displayed in Denver addressed to Obama and was also taken down.

Northwest Airlines, the official airline of the Republican National Convention, had forwarded complaints to Clear Channel that the billboard was “scary” and “anti-McCain.

A changing schedule

The RNC’s schedule is still up in the air for the rest of the week at this point. However, one key event emphasizing science will take place Wednesday morning at an energy and commerce breakfast, where US Department of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is the expected keynote speaker. Other breakfast meetings, key events that typically include a heavy dose of policy and heavyweight speakers, will focus on such topics as health care innovation and intellectual property.

For now, though, it’s unclear when or if the RNC agenda will return to normal. It’s not the “Convention That Wasn’t,” as was feared at one point. But what it will be, particularly related to science policy, remains to be seen.

Jill Jungling