Second day of Republican convention to feature Ron Paul tribute

The second day of the Republican convention will feature a video tribute to Ron Paul, the Romney campaign announced Friday.

The film is one of many accommodations for the former Republican presidential hopeful and his network of supporters at the convention. Paul's son, freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), will be speaking on Monday, and the Texas lawmaker himself is planning a day-long rally with supporters on the Sunday proceeding the convention.

"While they certainly disagree on many issues, they have always had, if you watch the debates, a lot of mutual respect between them. Congressman Paul's people came to us and said they'd like to do a small tribute to him, and we said absolutely," said Romney adviser Russ Schriefer during a conference call with reporters.

Paul spokesman Jesse Benton told The Washington Post earlier this week that the campaign has identified 373 delegates and alternates that will be at the convention in support of Paul — a sizable chunk of the 2,286 delegates in attendance. The Republican National Committee and Romney campaign have been working with Paul's supporters in recent weeks to put to bed anxieties that his supporters could attempt to disrupt the carefully scripted proceedings.

"We feel that we're in a good place," said Schriefer. "We know that not everybody is going to agree with us all of the time, but that we'll unite together."

Schriefer also denied that the roll-call vote that will officially nominate Romney had been moved to Monday afternoon out of concerns that Paul supporters could disrupt the tally. The Romney aide said that the schedule change was the byproduct of what could be a difficult transportation situation for delegates in Tampa, where hotels are scattered throughout a large region instead of concentrated in a single area.

Schriefer also said that, if things go on schedule, Romney should hit the clenching 1,144th delegate as the broadcast networks came on air with their evening newscasts.

That could be important for the Romney campaign, after the broadcast networks announced earlier this week that they would not air convention coverage on the first night of the Republican convention, during which Ann Romney was scheduled to speak.

On Friday, Schriefer was noncommittal when asked whether Ann Romney's speech would be moved if the networks did not reconsider.

"I'm optimistic the right thing will be done," Schriefer said.

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