Beginning at 2pm eastern Tuesday, the RNC schedule will be filled up to 11pm eastern Tuesday night with delegate proceedings and speeches. The big three broadcast networks will be airing 1 hour of coverage from 10pm eastern to 11pm. The cable news networks will feature more content throughout the evening and, as always, C-SPAN will be airing live begining at 2pm eastern with the entire afternoon.
RNC Live Stream: C-SPAN (begining 2pm eastern time on Tuesday 8/28)
The Washington Post has highlight a few of the most notable speakers for Tuesday evening including Ann Romney and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
TAMPA — After a day-long postponement due to Tropical Storm Isaac, the Republican National Convention begins in earnest Tuesday with a jam-packed schedule of events beginning at 2 p.m. and running all the way through 11 p.m. eastern.
* John Boehner (7 p.m. hour speech): While the addresses by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, which are both scheduled for the 7 p.m. hour, are likely to draw the lion’s share of attention, the House Speaker’s speech is likely to be more entertaining than either. Boehner is among the most frank politicians operating at a very high national level — he said Monday that the party platform should fit on a single sheet of paper — and that bluntness alone makes his speech worth tuning into.
* Kelly Ayotte (8 p.m. hour): For much of the last few months, we had the New Hampshire Senator in the top 10 of our Veepstakes rankings. Though she wasn’t ultimately the pick (or close to it), Ayotte is someone with the real capacity to become a national star in the coming years. She’s young with a law and order background. (She served as New Hampshire Attorney General before being elected to the Senate in 2010.) She’s articulate and pragmatic. And she’s conservative but not too conservative. In a night packed with potential national GOP stars — Govs. Nikki Haley, Scott Walker and Brian Sandoval to name three — Ayotte is the one we will be watching the closest.
* Ann Romney (10 p.m. hour): There is a case to be made that Ann Romney’s speech about her husband is as important as Mitt Romney’s speech about himself. What’s clear from the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll is that the economy continues to drag President Obama down and yet Romney isn’t able to surge forward because, well, people just don’t like him much. The only way for Romney to narrow that likability gap is to show people that he is more than just a rich business guy. And the person best equipped — and, yes, better equipped than Romney himself — to tell the story of Mitt the man is his wife.
* Chris Christie (10 p.m. hour): The New Jersey governor’s keynote address will be viewed by most savvy political types as a speech as much about what Christie’s future than Romney’s present. Christie is clearly reveling in his time as the Republican party’s biggest star — he was mobbed by reporters and cameramen when he toured the convention hall Monday — and he and his political team understand the importance of giving a well reviewed speech tonight. Expect the Christie conservatives have fallen in love with — no nonsense, tough talking — to be on full display. The question/challenge for Christie is whether he can go big; can he find a moment that shows him as the sort of visionary leader the party could be looking for in 2016 if Romney falls short?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the our fellow Americans in the path of Tropical Storm Isaac set to make landfall soon.
