McCain, Palin team up as Gustav looms

St Louis: White House hopeful John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin hit the campaign trail as a team on Saturday, seeking to build on the momentum of her surprise addition to the Republican ticket even as Hurricane Gustav threatened to overshadow this week's party convention.

The Arizona senator and Alaska governor flew to Mississippi yesterday to view preparations for the hurricane, adding a last-minute trip in an effort to contrast their would-be administration with President George W. Bush's slow response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

The two candidates will visit a storm command centre in Jackson, a spokes-woman said.

Forecasts showed Gustav could come ashore as a powerful storm in Louis-iana today or early tomorrow.

McCain told a rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, he was keeping the people in the Gulf Coast in his prayers and said in a taped interview that the convention could be postponed.

"It just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster," he said.

Fundraising

The rally marked McCain and Palin's second full day in public as a political ticket. People shouted, "Sarah, Sarah!" as the Alaska governor took the stage with McCain, whose vice presidential pick on Friday ignited fundraising and drew Democratic scorn.

McCain and Palin will be nominated officially at the convention in St Paul, Minnesota. Bush is scheduled to speak there on Monday evening, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the administration was making contingency plans that could include an address via satellite instead.

"We continue to track the path of the storm and there is no scheduling change to speak of yet," she said.

Republican convention organisers said they were also monitoring the storm and considering contingencies. Democratic nominee Barack Obama, campaigning in Ohio, spoke by phone with Louisiana's governor and the mayor of New Orleans about the storm.

Both Obama and McCain have sharply criticised Bush's response to Katrina and are eager to assure voters they would handle a natural disaster in the US differently.

"Obviously this is a very serious situation," Obama said of Hurricane Gustav, adding he was monitoring events closely. "The main priority had to be making sure that everything is being done on the ground to prevent a repeat of some of the tragic situations we saw several years ago."

Meanwhile, McCain and his wife, Cindy, spent time getting to know Palin, her husband, Todd, and their children on Saturday, visiting voters at a diner in Pittsburgh and holding a rally in the town of Washington with a crowd estimated at some 10,000.

Palin, the first woman to be nominated as vice president on a Republican ticket, drew boos from an otherwise enthusiastic crowd when she referred to Hillary Clinton's failed bid for the Democratic nomination.