TAMPA — National Republicans will gather in Tampa for their national convention beginning one year from last Saturday. Hardly the time of year to show Tampa at its best.

At 10:30 p.m. (P.M.!) last Saturday the temperature here was 86 with a heat index of 96. It was so humid and sticky that walking around outside was like dog-paddling through warm onion soup. This was in shorts and a t-shirt. Walking a few blocks in a business suit could have been fatal. And if I find her supine on a city street, I am not going to give Maureen Dowd mouth-to-mouth.

Republicans may well leave Tampa next year fired up and ready to go out there and block and tackle for a conservative candidate to replace our socialist incumbent on 1/20/13. I’m more sure they will go home vowing never to return to Tampa in the summer.