The Republican National Convention will open as scheduled today. But it appears it'll be a far different sort of convention than originally planned. From Politico:

Convention planners said for the first time that they expect McCain to accept the nomination in person, in St. Paul. They had considered a remote appearance from the Gulf coast. ...

Delegations were not being asked to cancel events, but were urged to make them “appropriate” and to use them to sign up volunteers for the comfort package work on Wednesday and Thursday.

A visit by Vice President Cheney was scratched, as was a primetime appearance by President Bush, who flew to Texas to check storm preparations instead.

There's no doubt that there are public relations aspects to some of these decisions. That's not to discount the sincere, compassionate reasons as well. But now the convention will go ahead without appearances by a very unpopular president and vice president. The very "business-like" convention means that McCain does not have to compete directly with the massive crowd that watched Barack Obama accept his nomination last week.