Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan takes the stage.

By JORDAN FABIAN

TAMPA, Fla. — Republicans put a diverse set of speakers on the convention stage Tuesday with the hopes of addressing the growing gender and racial gap it faces with Democrats, expect that effort to continue Wednesday.

1:12 a.m. Paul Ryan’s made some misleading statements during his convention speech

Slate’s Dave Weigel has a list of five misleading or false statements that Ryan made during his address Wednesday night on topics from the auto bailout, the stimulus, Medicare cuts and deficit reduction.

11:15 p.m. Why Susana Martinez was the best Latino speaker yet

TAMPA, Fla. — Five Latino officials have spoken in prime time here at the Republican National Convention and none has been better than New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez …

10:45 p.m. Paul Ryan accepts GOP presidential nomination

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) officially became the Republican presidential nominee Wednesday night. Here’s his acceptance speech: 

Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States.

I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity – and I know we can do this.

I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready.

Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words.  After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.

I’m the newcomer to the campaign, so let me share a first impression.  I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power.

They’ve run out of ideas.  Their moment came and went. Fear and division are all they’ve got left.  

With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money – and he’s pretty experienced at that.  You see, some people can’t be dragged down by the usual cheap tactics, because their ability, character, and plain decency are so obvious – and ladies and gentlemen, that is Mitt Romney.

For my part, your nomination is an unexpected turn.  It certainly came as news to my family, and I’d like you to meet them: My wife Janna, our daughter Liza, and our boys Charlie and Sam.

The kids are happy to see their grandma, who lives in Florida.  There she is – my Mom, Betty.

My Dad, a small-town lawyer, was also named Paul.  Until we lost him when I was 16, he was a gentle presence in my life.  I like to think he’d be proud of me and my sister and brothers, because I’m sure proud of him and of where I come from, Janesville, Wisconsin.   

I live on the same block where I grew up.  We belong to the same parish where I was baptized.  Janesville is that kind of place.

The people of Wisconsin have been good to me.  I’ve tried to live up to their trust.  And now I ask those hardworking men and women, and millions like them across America, to join our cause and get this country working again.

When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket, I said, “Let’s get this done” – and that is exactly, what we’re going to do.

President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two.  Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account.  My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.”  That’s what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year.  It is locked up and empty to this day.  And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.

Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work.  Twenty-three million people, unemployed or underemployed.  Nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty.  Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life.  Half of them can’t find the work they studied for, or any work at all.

So here’s the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?

The first troubling sign came with the stimulus.  It was President Obama’s first and best shot at fixing the economy, at a time when he got everything he wanted under one-party rule.  It cost $831 billion – the largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government.

It went to companies like Solyndra, with their gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs, and make-believe markets. The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal. 

What did the taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus?  More debt.  That money wasn’t just spent and wasted – it was borrowed, spent, and wasted.   

Maybe the greatest waste of all was time. Here we were, faced with a massive job crisis – so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent.  You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business. 

But this president didn’t do that.  Instead, we got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.

Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country. 

The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over.  That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.

And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.

You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn’t have enough money.  They needed more.  They needed hundreds of billions more.  So, they just took it all away from Medicare.  Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.  An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for.  The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.

In Congress, when they take out the heavy books and wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville.  My wonderful grandma, Janet, had Alzheimer’s and moved in with Mom and me.  Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.

We had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it’s there for my Mom today.  Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it.  A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my Mom’s generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.

So our opponents can consider themselves on notice.  In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the Left isn’t going to work.  Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program, and raiding it.  Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate.  We want this debate.  We will win this debate.  

Obamacare, as much as anything else, explains why a presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close.

It began with a financial crisis; it ends with a job crisis.

It began with a housing crisis they alone didn’t cause; it ends with a housing crisis they didn’t correct.

It began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.

It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new.  Now all that’s left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday’s wind.

President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made.  He said, well, “I haven’t communicated enough.”  He said his job is to “tell a story to the American people” – as if that’s the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?  

Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House.  What’s missing is leadership in the White House.  And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old.  The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?

In this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time.  Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt “unpatriotic” – serious talk from what looked to be a serious reformer.

Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined.  One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.

He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report.  He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.

Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems.  How did the president respond?  By doing nothing – nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.

So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing.  In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious.

They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop spending money we don’t have.

My Dad used to say to me: “Son.  You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.”  The present administration has made its choices.  And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation’s economic problems.

And I’m going to level with you: We don’t have that much time.  But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.

After four years of government trying to divide up the wealth, we will get America creating wealth again. With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we’ll put government back on the side of the men and women who create jobs, and the men and women who need jobs.

My Mom started a small business, and I’ve seen what it takes. Mom was 50 when my Dad died.  She got on a bus every weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison.  She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business.  It wasn’t just a new livelihood.  It was a new life.  And it transformed my Mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn’t just in the past.  Her work gave her hope.  It made our family proud.  And to this day, my Mom is my role model.

Behind every small business, there’s a story worth knowing.  All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores – these didn’t come out of nowhere.  A lot of heart goes into each one.  And if small businesspeople say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week in their place.  Nobody showed up in their place to open the door at five in the morning.  Nobody did their thinking, and worrying, and sweating for them.  After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn’t help to hear from their president that government gets the credit.  What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that. 

We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.

In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less.  That is enough.  The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government.

I learned a good deal about economics, and about America, from the author of the Reagan tax reforms – the great Jack Kemp.  What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people, in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair.   We need that same optimism right now.

And in our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan administration will speak with confidence and clarity.  Wherever men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that the American president is on their side.  Instead of managing American decline, leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in the conviction that the United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known.

President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises on the record, and then calls that the record.  But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy as Barack Obama inherited it, not the economy as he envisions it, but this economy as we are living it.

College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.  Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now.  And I hope you understand this too, if you’re feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.

None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers – a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.

Listen to the way we’re spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate.

It’s the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio.  When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life.  I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself.  That’s what we do in this country.  That’s the American Dream.  That’s freedom, and I’ll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.

By themselves, the failures of one administration are not a mandate for a new administration.  A challenger must stand on his own merits.  He must be ready and worthy to serve in the office of president.

We’re a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I.  And, in some ways, we’re a little different.  There are the songs on his iPod, which I’ve heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies.  I said, I hope it’s not a deal-breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC, and ends with Zeppelin.

A generation apart. That makes us different, but not in any of the things that matter.  Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the heartland, and we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like when times are good, when people are working, when families are doing more than just getting by.  And we both know it can be that way again.

We’ve had very different careers – mine mainly in public service, his mostly in the private sector. He helped start businesses and turn around failing ones. By the way, being successful in business – that’s a good thing.

Mitt has not only succeeded, but succeeded where others could not.  He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending, and corruption – sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

He was the Republican governor of a state where almost nine in ten legislators are Democrats, and yet he balanced the budget without raising taxes. Unemployment went down, household incomes went up, and Massachusetts, under Mitt Romney, saw its credit rating upgraded.

Mitt and I also go to different churches.  But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example.  And I’ve been watching that example.  The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best. Not only a fine businessman, he’s a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country.

 Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed.  We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope.  Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life.

We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone.  And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak.  The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.

Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government – to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society.  They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America’s founding.  They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government.

The founding generation secured those rights for us, and in every generation since, the best among us have defended our freedoms.  They are protecting us right now.  We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them.

The right that makes all the difference now, is the right to choose our own leaders.  And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near.  So here is our pledge.

We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead.

We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.

We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.

The work ahead will be hard.  These times demand the best of us – all of us, but we can do this.  Together, we can do this.

We can get this country working again.  We can get this economy growing again.  We can make the safety net safe again.  We can do this.

Whatever your political party, let’s come together for the sake of our country.  Join Mitt Romney and me.  Let’s give this effort everything we have.  Let’s see this through all the way.  Let’s get this done.

Thank you, and God bless.

Ryan didn’t get through his speech without being interrupted by protesters:

Laura Mills, 22, from Washington DC. Interrupted Paul Ryan speech with banner that reads: vagina twitter.com/NicoHines/stat…

— Nico Hines (@NicoHines) August 30, 2012

Univision News’ Cristina Costantini was on hand in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis. to watch the speech at a Mexican restaurant there. Check it out.

7:00 p.m. ABC News Live stream 

Univision News’ Mariana Atencio will appear at the ABC News Live stream tonight at 8:30pm and Political Editor Jordan Fabian at 9:30pm. Not to miss!

6:30pm Puerto Rican committeewoman speaks

Zoraida Fonalledas, the Republican committeewoman that many thought was booed Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Tampa until it was revealed she was not, says the incident didn’t bother her at all. 

In fact, she told El Nuevo Día, she doesn’t  think it’s a bad thing at all. 

“Now everyone knows me,” she said.

Read the full story here.

6:05 p.m. Ryan: Romney will meet “serious challenges in a serious way”

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan will address the party faithful tonight. Here are excerpts of his speech: 

“I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready. Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words.  After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.
….
“Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country. The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over.  That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.
……
“We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.
….
“My Dad used to say to me: ‘Son.  You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.’  The present administration has made its choices.  And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation’s economic problems. And I’m going to level with you: We don’t have that much time.  But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.
….
“The right that makes all the difference now is the right to choose our own leaders.  You are entitled to the clearest possible choice because the time for choosing is drawing near.  So here is our pledge. We will not duck the tough issues – we will lead.  We will not spend four years blaming others – we will take responsibility. We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles. The work ahead will be hard.  These times demand the best of us – all of us, but we can do this.  Together, we can do this.”

3:55 p.m. Ann Romney speaks at Latino Coalition 

Ann Romney said Latino voters are “mistaken” if they think life will be better by voting for Obama in November. 

The Republican presidential candidate’s wife spoke at the Latino Coalition luncheon on Wednesday, reports ABC.

“I spoke to women last night and I wanted women to understand how important this election is for their children, but as I was sitting backstage listening, I thought, it’s also very important that the Latino community recognize how important this election is for them,” she told attendees. 

She added that it’s important for Latinos and other “coalitions” that might be inclined to vote Democratic to “wake up and say, ‘You’d better really look at the issues this time.’” 

Romney said she knows what it is like to be the daughter of immigrants. Her father was a Welsh coal miner. 

“It really is a message that would resonate well if they could just get past some of their biases that have been there from the Democratic machines that have made us look like we don’t care about this community,” Romney said. “And that is not true. We very much care about you and your families and the opportunities that are there for you and your families.” 

Romney also praised the woman who introduced her at the convention Tuesday night, First Lady of Puerto Rico Luce Fortuno, as a “kindred” spirit. 

Her youngest son, Craig, introduced Romney. Craig speaks Spanish and has appeared in a Spanish-language campaign ad for his father. 

— Emily DeRuy 

2:57 p.m. Checking into Twitter 

Congrats to the lovely couple who got engaged on the convention stage today ! twitter.com/Reince/status/…

— Reince Priebus (@Reince) August 29, 2012

#unipolitica Ann Romney with Univision twitter.com/TiaLulaTorres/…

— Lourdes Torres (@TiaLulaTorres) August 29, 2012

1:20 p.m. Republicans advise Romney to avoid immigration in convention speech

TAMPA, Fla. — A cadre of Latino politicians and GOP strategists said their party’s presidential nominee Mitt Romney should avoid talking about immigration in his convention speech in favor of focusing on a broader message for voters.

Speaking about entrepreneurship and economic empowerment would be much better received by Latino voters tuning into Romney’s speech, they said at a panel discussion sponsored by Univision, ABC News, and the National Journal.

Former Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) even suggested that it Romney would attempt to avoid the topic altogether for the final two months of the campaign.

“He’s decided he will deal with this issue as a president, not as a candidate,” he said.

GOP strategist Ana Navarro added later that Romney should avoid “microtargeting” in his speech and focus on a message that could appeal to a more general audience.

Romney is running far behind President Obama among Latino voters with Election Day approaching. The Republican Party’s struggles in attracting Latino voters could limit their path to victory in this election, but the panelists warned that the damage could be even greater if the problem isn’t fixed in future elections.

In a decade, “we won’t be talking about how to win Florida, we’ll be talking about how not to use Texas,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres. 

With Romney trailing big, Republicans have eyed the convention as a chance to “reset” their relationship with Latinos at a time when many voters are tuning in for the first time. But that task could prove difficult, in part because the immigration debate has  been followed closely in Latino communities.

Latinos don’t list immigration as their most important voting issue, but the debate is typically judged as a sign of respect to the community. Multiple panelists said that the tone of the debate during the Republican primary, when Romney endorsed the concept of “self-deportation,” has hurt.

“I think the tone has been wrong, and I think the tone in the primary really did a lot of damage,” Martinez said. “I hope we could move past that.”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), another Romney supporter, says his party “lost the Hispanic vote” before the former Massachusetts governor was even running for office.

Romney trails Obama 65-26 percent among Latino voters nationwide, according to a recent Latino Decisions/impreMedia survey. Over half of Latino voters say the GOP doesn’t care too much about reaching out to them.

Still, Republicans remain hopeful that their presidential candidate can make a late surge and make inroads in the community, which would help their chances of winning states like Florida, Nevada, and Colorado.

Diaz-Balart predicted that Romney would surpass John McCain’s 31 percent Latino support in the 2008 presidential campaign because in this election, “it’s the economy, stupid.”

“No one has done more self-deportation than President Obama” because the struggling economy is forcing immigrants to leave the U.S. for jobs in their home countries, he added.

Navarro said that the party could feature its crop of rising Latino stars urged the Romney campaign to invest heavily in Latino outreach with the tens of millions of dollars in general election funds that Romney will legally be allowed to use starting Thursday.

“I don’t think they are on track today,” Navarro said of their Latino outreach. “But they could be on track tomorrow.”

Romney’s Mexican roots

The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake features a lighter moment from the event.

Univision’s Jorge Ramos, whose organization sponsored the event along with National Journal, asked Republican consultant Ana Navarro why Mitt Romney doesn’t identify as Mexican, given that that’s where his family is from.

Ramos reasoned that Jeb Bush’s son, George P. Bush, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson identify as Latino because they each have a Mexican parent.

Romney’s dad was born in Mexico, where his family established a Mormon commune to escape anti-polygamy laws in the United States (more on that here).

Navarro disagreed with the line of questioning.

“I think that’s an unfair question,” she said. “He wasn’t raised Mexican, and we know that it was very particular circumstances of a Mormon colony that moved to Mexico.

“John McCain was born in Panama, but he’s not Panamanian. And guess what: I was born in Nicaragua. I want to be a Cuban-American-Nicaraguan-Mexican from Miami.”

Reactions from the event

- Jordan Fabian

11:55 a.m. Track the candidates on Twitter

9:45 am Paul Ryan, Puerto Rican governor and what to expect from day 2

Speeches

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, the nation’s first Latina governor, and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño will address the convention Wednesday in prime time. But the most highly-anticipated speech will come from the Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

Ryan, a staunch budget hawk, is confronted with the task of selling to a national audience the Republicans vision for the role of government in America. The Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez reported this week on Ryan’s “preview” speech in his hometown of Janesville, Wis.

In a hometown “send-off” rally that doubled as a preview of the Republican National Convention speech he is set to give in Tampa, Rep. Paul Ryan on Monday delivered an impassioned description of his family’s journey to the United States from Ireland and outlined his vision for an America in which the role of community trumps that of government.

“We live together in freedom,” the presumptive GOP vice presidential nominee told a sea of more than 2,000 family members, friends, students and other supporters gathered in the gymnasium of his high school alma mater. “And what we do in our communities is we look out for one another. That’s what’s so special; that’s what government can’t replace or displace.”

Our own Cristina Costantini, a Wisconsin native, is in Janesville and will be watching Ryan’s speech with local Latino residents. Watch out for her coverage tonight at 10pm.

Other than Romney’s acceptance speech Thursday, Ryan’s might be the most important of the convention. Ryan’s budget, particularly its transformation of Medicare, hasn’t been the political albatross some predicted it would be, especially in a state like Florida with a large population of retirees.

But Ryan’s budget plans will continue to remain a contentious issue in the final stretch of the campaign. Expect him to deliver a vigorous defense of its underlying philosophy and advance the campaign’s attack Republicans against President Obama on Medicare, specifically that his healthcare law cuts millions from the program. Democrats have called the claim misleading.

Univision + ABC in the house

Happening at 10 am today is “The Republican Party in Tomorrow’s America,” a panel discussion on how the nation’s growing Latino population is changing U.S. politics. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, former Sen. Mel Martinez, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Florida GOP strategist Ana Navarro, and GOP pollster Whit Ayres will speak with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, Univision’s Jorge Ramos, and National Journal’s Ron Brownstein.

Watch the livestream here.

Here’s what else is happening in and around Tampa:

That “U-S-A” chant at the Republican National Convention wasn’t about race

Puerto Rico’s Republican National Committeewoman Zoraida Fonalledas seemed to be the target of nativist chants on the convention floor Monday. But that wasn’t the case, we report:

Harper’s covered the incident in a post titled “A Troubling Incident on the Convention Floor”:

A sea of twentysomething bowties and cowboy hats morphing into frat bros apparently shrieking over (or at) a Latina. RNC chairman Reince Priebus quickly stepped up and asked for order and respect for the speaker, suggesting that, yeah, what we had just seen might well have been an ugly outburst of nativism.

The story quickly caught fire in Latino and mainstream outlets alike.

That interpretation would fit nicely into the narrative of the Republicans problems appealing to Latinos. But there’s just one problem: that’s not what happened.

Rubio predicts Romney will win Florida, can’t say what he’ll do with deferred action

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was on a media tour Tuesday. The Hill reports: 

Mitt Romney will win Florida once Americans see the acute policy differences between the former Massachusetts governor and President Obama on the economy, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said.

“Absolutely, I expect he will. I think once the argument is clear about the differences between Republicans and Democrats on the economy I expect he’ll win Florida,” Rubio said Wednesday in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show.”

“Plus the folks that have been visiting Florida this week have been leaving great tips. They’re great tippers,” Rubio said chuckling.

Rubio on Romney and DREAM Act executive order: “I can’t speak for what he’s going to do on the policy…” @gma

— Rick Klein (@rickklein) August 29, 2012

Ted Cruz calls on Romney to end deferred action

The Cuban-American Texas Senate candidate is opposed to the program, the Huffington Post reports:

Ted Cruz, a Republican senatorial candidate from Texas, said Monday he thinks presidential candidate Mitt Romney should end President Barack Obama’s deferred action policy, going beyond Romney’s line that he doesn’t need to because he’ll fix the problem quickly through Congress.

Asked by Telemundo whether Romney should reinstate deportations of young people granted deferred action, Cruz said, “I do.”

Hats!

The convention floor is quite a colorful scene. Check out this picture Jorge Ramos snapped of the Texas delegation:

(Photo: Flickr, Gage Skidmore)