McCain may visit St. Paul after all

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Hurricane Gustav's path has raised hope that Sen. John McCain will accept his party's nomination in person at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn.

As a contingency, convention planners had considered McCain addressing the Republican National convention remotely from the Gulf Coast. However, organizers said they expect the Arizona senator to make it to Minnesota accept the nomination in person.

Rep. David Dreier of California, the convention's parliamentarian, told CSPAN he personally thought the party's standard-bearer would speak to the delegates in person Thursday, "but don't want to predict what will happen."

The opening session was drastically cut back to handle only the essentials to move the nominating process along.

The convention is expected to run the full four scheduled days, officials told Politico, a Washington publication.

Hurricane Gustav had weakened to a Category 1 storm, but still remained a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Hurricane warnings were in effect from just east of Cameron, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.

It was expected to continue to weaken over the next 48 hours, the center said, predicting Gustav to become a tropical storm by early Tuesday and a tropical depression late Tuesday or Wednesday.