What if...

Way out in the Atlantic, thousands of miles east of Fay, Invest 94L -- or "proto-Gustav," if you prefer -- lurks. Some computer models suggest it could be a threat to Florida in, oh, 10 days or so.

Obviously that's a long way off, an eternity in forecasting terms. But imagine it happens. And imagine Hurricane Gustav becomes a monster storm. And imagine that, on the very night Barack Obama is supposed to triumphantly accept the nomination in front of 75,000 adoring acolytes in Denver (next Thursday, 10 days from tonight), the über-swing state of Florida is getting walloped by a major hurricane.

Do you think the media might be a little distracted from Obama's big moment, in such an event? (So much for a post-convention bump!) Also, can you imagine the P.R. calamity for the Dems? Throwing a big honking party while Florida is being torn apart by a hurricane! How dare they! Oh, the humanity! But, what are they supposed to do, cancel their convention? Postpone it by a day or two? Oh, I'm sure the logistics of that would work great.

99.9% chance, this won't happen. But it's fun to speculate about. (Because in hypothetical scenarios, nobody gets hurt!)

By the way... my latest blogging on the non-hypothetical storm currently hitting Florida, Tropical Storm Fay, is over at Weather Nerd.