Pearl, Mississippi:

John McCain and his Vice-Presidential presumptive nominee took an unscheduled trip to Pearl, Mississippi to get a briefing on plans for the arrival of Hurricane Gustav.   While in Pearl, he toured the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.  He and Sarah Palin then received a closed door briefing.

After the closed door meeting, he made a brief statement.  He told the press that under the circumstances there would be changes to the RNC convention in St Paul, Minnesota.

With neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney attending the convention now, McCain said it would no longer be appropriate to hold a political celebration.  Now he says, the convention should be a “call to action” and instead of thinking like Republicans,  they will now act like Americans.

“…there’s very little doubt that we have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help or fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster…..to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat”

He did not elaborate on specific changes to the program but preparations are under way for phone banking and the coordination of volunteer relief efforts.

McCain has now chartered flights so that Louisiana and Mississippi delegates can return to the region.  They will be flown to Jackson,  Mississippi.    John McCain has a rally in St Louis later this afternoon where he will discuss his plans to alter the convention further.  Tomorrow he plans to campaign in Toledo, Ohio.