Today is tough to quantify in terms of a "Day one" yesterday, the McCain campaign announced the cancelling of almost all of the events of todays RNC day. Leaving very little in terms of stuff to talk  about. I personally thing they have lost some serious traction.

They did have Laura Bush speak today... around 4pmish. As of right now, there is nothing... NOTHING going on at the RNC. I think this is a major blunder (for several reasons)

1) I figured the Republicans would use their Prime Time media to showcase the "compassionate" conservatives in the party,  in order to implore the people watching to give money to the Red Cross. They have the time, why not use it? I am imagine Katrina-esque campaign. Instead, the convention hall is empty. utterly empty. Where are the delegates? They should be on the TV screen, calling people to donate, and give the impression of pushing for relief. They passed on a tremendous opportunity here.

2) With the News of the Palin Pregnacy, they are ceeding control of the media narrative. Without the convention to distract and drown out the noise, the 24/7 Cable news stations have two things to discuss, Gustav and the Pregnacy. All three of the Cable Giants (CNN, MSNBC, and evenFox) are bouncing back and forth between the two subjects. (Right now, MSNBC is on Gustav, Bill O'Reilly is talking about the Palin Pregnancy, and  CNNis transitioning from Gustav to Palin... in an empty Convention center, and finally CSPAN is re-running protestor speeches from earlier today ).

The McCain campaign has lost the media cycle, not to Obama, but to the Media.

3) Starting Tomorrow, the convention has three days to accomplish: Introduce Palin, Convince Palin is the right choice, Boost McCain, and attack Obama. It seems that attacking Obama will take a backseat to the other three themes the more they ceed this story, the more they need to reassure the delegates and the GOP faithful.

Obama not taking the bait, makes it harder to put the blame on his campaign on this story.

4) I just wish that the GOP actually did something in Prime Time, it makes it seem that they are not even trying to put in any help. I am not a supporter of McCain, but I am just shocked the GOP didn't take the Prime Time to show their softer side.


Also, with Hurricane Hanna potentially bearing down on Florida/Georgia on Thursday Night... Not good for McCain.

By all accounts, this is not a good week for the Republicans in branding their Presidential Team.

The  Cable Round up now: O'Reilly still on the Palin Pregnancy (he is saying Obama is  classy!), MSNBC is still on  Gustav (and Approaching Hanna), CNN is on the Palin Pregnacy and what her speech on Wednesday will need to be (on the floor of the still empty convention floor), and CSPAN is still on the War Rally coverage.