Protesters near-silent at Republican convention

Tampa officials had predicted that 15,000 protesters could show up for the Republican convention. The actual number: somewhere in the hundreds. Other than an attempt at a citizen's arrest of former Bush secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and a workers' march outside the offices of a restaurant chain owned by Bain Capital, there has been no protest activity of note. "Romneyville," a protester encampment in a vacant lot, is so pitiful that one protester feebly begged police officers to pay more attention to it.

In what almost passes for a protest march here, four smiling young people wearing black shirts and buttons reading things like "TAX THE RICH" congregated on a street corner near the security perimeter on Thursday morning. Asked what they were up to, one said, truthfully, "Just going for a walk."

He said the hurricane threat might have contributed to the paltry protester showing this week. The lack of a protest "culture" in Florida might have also been a factor, he said.