The Strib's Kevin Diaz says it's extremely likely John McCain will accept the presidential nomination in St. Paul. Meanwhile, grandma-to-be Sarah Palin has no public appearances scheduled for today — hmm, wonder why? To be fair, she is giving kind of a big speech Wednesday.

KARE11 reports George Bush will give his convention speech tonight from the Gulf Coast, celebrating his .500 batting average in Louisiana hurricane disasters.

ABC's Brian Ross used the local band Hookers and Blow to tweak Republican bacchanalias held despite the Gustav threat; the group played an NRA party this weekend at Gluek's. There's some pretty good fatcat video — with corporate sponsors attached — from around the Twin Cities, plus a special congressman ambush.

On a more superficial note, MSNBC's Chris Matthews tells MPR's Laura Yuen that St. Paul feels "Canadian." St. Paul restaurateurs say their weekend was stinky, and believe the business was all in Minneapolis.

KSTP reports fighter planes were scrambled twice locally to deal with aircraft violating the convention-week no-fly zone around the Twin Cities. There's home video of one intercept.

Tasteful restraint: AP's Andrew DeMillo says buttons seen inside Xcel include "Beat Obama and Osama."

Good idea; The Strib's Katherine Kersten interviews Louisiana's convention delegation as Gustav bore down. "The people of Louisiana are fed up with the institutions that failed them so miserably during the Katrina disaster," one delegate says — wonder if he'll be cheering George Bush when the president speaks (live or in-person) tonight. Gov. Bobby Jindal is the hero, freezing wages, boosting ethics laws and cutting taxes. The state's unemployment rate is dropping, though Katrina peaks and oil's rise might be non-Jindal, unmentioned factors.

Fox9's Scott Wasserman says Minnesota delegates have excellent convention-floor seats, right by the low-slung, squarish stage.

Mitt Romney campaigned for Michele Bachmann at the Minnesota State Fair, the PiPress' Dennis Lien writes. Later in the day, Romney told The Hotline he didn't anticipate running for president again — though he's been known to flip-flop. Still later, Bachmann talked to me about how fellow Family Values conservative Palin would turn her unmarried daughter's unplanned pregnancy into a plus with social conservatives and the public at large.

MPR's Chris Roberts reports on how the "Political Chicks a Go-Go" party became "Relief for the Gulf Coast." The event was sponsored by RightNOW!, a "moderate-to-conservative" group opposed to the National Organization for Women.