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Regina Spektor plays the piano so loudly, she has to convince piano tuners to adjust the instrument to her liking.

"It gets so loud that the strings reverberate in a certain way," Spektor says. "And I always want them to work on the voicing and to soften the hammers, and they get kind of argumentative with me — they're like, 'You're not supposed to play this loud.'"

Even some Republicans don't think the loss of Monday's proceedings at their party's national convention in Tampa, due to Tropical Storm Isaac, will matter much in the grand scheme of things.

"The whole drama of the hurricane's very unique here," says David Woodard, a GOP consultant who teaches at Clemson University. "Suppose Isaac wiped out the whole convention — who cares?"

Conventions clearly are a diminished thing, Woodard says. They no longer decide who the presidential nominees are going to be, in anything but a strictly formal sense.

Political conventions, even ones that have been delayed a day by a tropical storm, are all about getting a party's message out to the nation.

Minutes ago in the Tampa Convention Center, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky used a sit-down with USA Today and Gannett correspondents to restate one key argument Republicans have been making and will continue to make through Election Day:

All eyes are on Tampa as Republicans get together to fire up their base, and attract independents to the fold. But one poll shows Mitt Romney with zero percent of African-Americans supporting him. Host Michel Martin discusses outreach to black voters with Tara Wall. She's a senior communications adviser with the Mitt Romney for President campaign.

During the last convention season, the U.S. was facing a frightening moment in its economic history. Home sales were shutting down, employers were slashing payrolls, and financial institutions were lurching toward chaos. Host Michel Martin talks with NPR's Marilyn Geewax about how the economic outlook has changed in the last four years.

The NFL is in a pay dispute with referees, and replacement refs have been working the preseason. Players and unionized officials say the substitutes are struggling, and that it'll only get worse. They cite safety as their biggest concern. Host Michel Martin discusses the issue with Pablo Torre of Sports Illustrated.

Tropical Storm Isaac slammed Haiti with heavy rain and strong winds. Although the damage is less than feared, the country is still trying to rebuild after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Host Michel Martin speaks with Haiti's First Lady Sophia Martelly to learn more about how they were affected by the storm.