Just One RNC Event Today: Start National Debt Clock

Hurricane Isaac has winnowed today's Republican National Convention events to just one: a short pro forma session in which RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will unveil a "national debt clock." The clock will start ticking at 2pm, bearing a figure somewhere north of $15.9 trillion, above the delegates at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, USA Today reports. "This clock reminds every delegate and every American why we are here in Tampa—because America can and must do better," Priebus says. "Every American's share of the national debt has increased by approximately $16,000 during the current administration."

The cancellation of today's convention events also means that Donald Trump can't engage in a planned stunt, the Washington Post reports. After heading to Sarasota to accept the Sarasota Republican Party’s Statesman of the Year award, Trump was supposed do a bunch of interviews in Tampa before appearing at the convention in a "surprise stunt"—an appearance requested by Mitt Romney himself, according to Trump's spokesperson. That will no longer happen, to the relief of many Republicans. ("It's a blessing," says an alternate delegate from Michigan.) But Trump will still accept the award in Sarasota, leading the Sarasota Republican Party to issue a statement declaring the businessman "bigger than Isaac." (More Republican National Convention stories.)