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St Paul. Minnesota: Republican John McCain on Sunday ordered political speeches to be cancelled for his Republican nominating convention on Monday to avoid a festive atmosphere while Americans cope with Hurricane Gustav.
McCain and other Republicans moved quickly to try to avoid a repeat of 2005 when President George W. Bush was seen as out of touch as Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
"Of course this is a time when we have to do away with most of our party politics," said McCain, who has been harshly critical of Bush's performance during Katrina.
Republican leaders, including McCain, say it would be unseemly to be seen celebrating while a natural disaster unfolded on the Gulf Coast 1,100 miles (1,700 km) away. Organisers said they would plan day to day based on the impact of the hurricane.
McCain, speaking by video hookup from St. Louis after visiting an emergency command centre in Jackson, Mississippi, said it was time that "we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats and say 'America, we're with you.'"
Republicans were in St. Paul for their four-day convention to formally nominate McCain as their candidate to face Democrat Barack Obama in the Nov. 4 election.
Whether McCain himself would appear in St. Paul, Minnesota, was up in the air. McCain was scheduled to close the convention with his nomination acceptance speech on Thursday.
Republican governors from the affected area, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, were unable to attend the St. Paul party.
As hundreds of thousands of people were evacuating the New Orleans area to get away from the storm's predicted impact zone, McCain visited Mississippi to review emergency preparations.
He was joined by his newly minted vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Washington outsider whose selection on Friday stunned the political world.
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