Rnc, Natural Disaster | featured news

David Frum says the drought is driving up world food prices, and history suggests that is likely to produce unrest within poor nations. Prediction: 2013 will be a year of serious global crisis. That crisis is predictable, and in fact has already begun. It will inescapably confront the next president of the United States. Yet this emerging crisis got not a mention at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. We'll see if the Democrats do better.

Here are some things to watch for at the Republican National Convention Wednesday: 1. RIDING THE STORM OUT: As Hurricane Isaac batters the Gulf Coast, Mitt Romney and GOP conventioneers decide how to respond. Can they show empathy for storm victims even as they celebrate Romney's nomination? Is there a way to help out? Also, watch how President Barack Obama handles Isaac, seven years after Hurricane Katrina caused so much trouble for President George W. Bush.

Into the carefully scripted Republican convention has come a complication: a natural disaster that not only distracts attention from Mitt Romney but sets up a collision with a fundamental tenet of today's GOP.