by Sean Bowditch

NPR's Scott Horsley, who's traveling with McCain, passed along this pool report:

McCain said there would be dramatic changes to the convention, turning it from celebratory event to call for action. Standing with Haley Barbour. Palin did not speak.

"We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans. We'll change our program and I'll be announcing details of it in the next few hours. But 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 our 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. I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republians, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat.''

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

 

Tour of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Emergency Operation Center in Jackson.

The McCains and Palin walked through a large room filled with rows of long desks and computers. There were five huge screens on the wall. One showed the Weather Channel, one showed the projected path of the hurricane, one contained state information such as evacuation plans and center openings and the two on the ends were split into four screens, showing various
networks. Including ESPN, Sunday worship services and, just after the group left, a CBS promo for the Obama-Biden 60 minutes interview.