The Republican Party opened its national convention to formally nominate John McCain its candidate for president with a subdued, business-only session, a bow to Americans caught in the destructive path of Hurricane Gustav.
Beyond the storm, Republicans were dealing with two other distractions, both involving McCain's vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Hours before the convention opened, Palin disclosed her unmarried 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. Next came news that Palin had hired a private lawyer to represent her in an investigation into the firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner.
Hurricane Gustav, which pounded ashore 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) south, provided some political distraction from the news surrounding Palin.
While the storm reminded Republicans of the political damage caused three years earlier by President George W. Bush's blundering response to Hurricane Katrina, it also gave them the chance to show they could do better this time as they pushed hard to strengthen the relief effort.
Convention organizers stripped out pageantry normally attached to the opening day of a political convention, limiting activities mostly to necessary public business.
Republicans scaled back attacks on Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Instead, first lady Laura Bush and her would-be successor, Cindy McCain, provided the day's star power, appealing for delegates to open their wallets to help those caught in Gustav's path.
"This is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats," said Cindy McCain, reprising a line her husband used Sunday.
George W. Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, canceled their appearances even before Republican convention organizers decided to scale back the first day's events. Bush headed to Texas to be nearer hurricane relief efforts.
McCain visited a relief center in Ohio and helped pack cleaning supplies and other items into plastic buckets to be sent to states along the Gulf of Mexico hit by the storm.
The program for Tuesday was in flux, officials said, although they said it was likely there would be more overt political speechmaking than on the convention's opening day.
Aides said McCain was probably would deliver his nomination acceptance speech as scheduled on Thursday.
The hurricane hit the heart of Louisiana's oil and fishing industries but appeared to spare New Orleans the catastrophic flooding of Katrina.
Its political impact was unclear. For a day at least, the storm denied McCain the nonstop news coverage that Obama enjoyed during the Democrats' four-day convention last week in Denver, Colorado.
At the same time, it also offered McCain an opportunity to distinguish himself from Bush by showing his leadership skills. Bush's decision to cancel the speech may not be unwelcome given the president's low popularity even with many Republicans.
Democratic nominee Obama also scaled back his political activities to direct his attention to the Gulf Coast. After stops in Michigan and Wisconsin, he was returning to his Chicago headquarters to monitor the storm's progress and decide his schedule for the rest of the week. He urged supporters to donate to the American Red Cross.
As Republicans assembled, anti-war demonstrators _ police estimates ranged from 2,000 to 10,000 _ marched toward the convention center. Some smashed windows, punctured tires and threw bottles along the way. Police used pepper spray and made at least 56 arrests.
The hurricane marked a pause in what has been the most engaging U.S. presidential campaign in memory. Both McCain and Obama were given little chance at the outset of the parties' primaries of winning the nominations.
McCain, 72, a veteran senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war, would be the oldest first-term president in U.S. history. Obama, 47, a first-term senator, would be the first black president.
McCain added further uncertainty to the race last week by naming a Palin, a virtual unknown, as his vice presidential running mate. Palin is a strong opponent of abortion and her selection was seen as boosting McCain's support among Christian conservatives, many of whom have been reluctant to back him.
Her conservative background added to the attention given to her announcement that her daughter Bristol is pregnant, although it undoubtedly would have received more attention had it not been for the hurricane.
Palin and her husband, Todd, announced the pregnancy in a statement. She said her daughter would marry the baby's father, who was identified only as Levi.
McCain's campaign aides said the statement was issued to rebut Internet rumors that the governor's 4-month-old baby was, in fact, Bristol's.
"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," the Palins said in the brief statement.
Prominent religious conservatives issued statements of support.
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, commended the Palins for "for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances."
The decision to hire a lawyer for Palin stems from an investigation into whether the governor fired Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.
In July, a legislative oversight committee approved $100,000 to investigate whether Palin abused her power.
The dispute over the dismissal has dogged Palin for nearly two months and is likely to do so for another two months leading to the Nov. 4 election.
The legislature's investigating committee disclosed the attorney's hiring on Monday. The committee released an e-mailed letter it had received from the lawyer on Friday, the day McCain announced Palin would be McCain's running mate.
Tucker Eskew, a senior McCain adviser, said the state, not Palin herself, hired the attorney to represent her in her capacity as governor, and he has been working for several weeks.
"The governor of every state gets legal counsel, and this attorney is part of a weeks-old effort to provide this governor defense in a series of outlandish politically motivated charges," Eskew said.
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