Republican leaders prep for convention

>>> tropical storm isaac is just one of the looming concerns for mitt romney and conservative leaders ahead of the convention . republicans hope are going -- it will go off without a political hitch. sean spicer is communications director for the republican national committee and joins me now. thanks so much for being with us. first, as we are preparing for this convention , mitt romney was at a rally of course with ann romney and paul ryan today in michigan and as you know, he raised the question by -- let me play so that you can hear yourself, if you haven't heard it already, exactly what he said.

>> ann was born at henry ford hospital . i was born at harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised.

>> why did he go there?

>> to michigan ? because it's an important state. it's where he was born. i know what you're asking. look, it's -- i mean, it's a light-hearted moment. he was stating a fact. he's proud of the fact he was born in michigan , that mrs. romney was born in the area. i listened to your segment with jen a few minutes ago and found it somewhat laughable that these guys who have taken gutter politics to a new low, if you can do that, are suddenly feigning outrage about this kind of comment. the governor has been, he made a light-hearted moment, nothing more than that. if you look at some of the outrage from the obama campaign , i would ask them where that outrage was when their super pac made unbelievable claims about governor romney when they themselves referred to him as a felon, when the president referred -- made dog jokes as you asked jen about. these guys to feign outrage is a little ridiculous.

>> i did ask as well about the super pac ad as you saw. but the fact is that the birther issue and all that went with it has been such a lightning rod and the governor has continually stepped up to the front and said he doesn't agree with it, yet at the same time, he went there today and raised it and isn't that a potential signal, it's reigniting something you guys didn't need going into this convention .

>> we're going to have a great convention . we will spend four days talking about mitt romney and paul ryan and their vision for the future, how to turn this country around, why we need to get people back to work again and deal with our debt and deficit. i think you're going to see that in the next four days starting sunday, going into monday here in tampa. we are extremely excited about the program that we've put together, the people that will be coming here, the speakers, the activities that are going on. i think we will have a great four days here in tampa.

>> let's talk about ron paul because now we know he's going -- you guys have told us that there's going to be a video tribute to ron paul on tuesday. it seems that governor romney and your whole team has done a very good job of bringing the party together and making sure that the ron paul supporters will not feel they didn't get a moment in prime time .

>> well, thank you. it's true. i think that we're all committed, everybody. if you look at not just dr. paul but all of the other candidates that ran in the primary, gave it their all, everybody 100% is united around governor romney and congressman ryan to move forward. i am extremely pleased with the folks in the paul campaign and he will have a role in this. former speaker gingrich, governor pawlenty, all the folks that gave it their all will have a great role in this convention because every one of us is committed to putting mitt romney in the white house and getting this country moving again. so what you've seen the last couple days as we build up and what you'll see going forward is just a tremendous amount of unity from this side, not just from republicans but from independents and disaffected democrats who all want to be part of this movement, this cause, and the comeback team that we've put in place to get this country moving again.

>> sean , what about the possibility, you're not ruling out the possibility that ann romney 's speech would be moved from monday if there's no agreement for full broadcast network coverage on monday when she's scheduled to speak?

>> well, mrs. romney is currently scheduled to speak on monday. the campaign, you know, if there's a change, we'll let you know about that. but it's unfortunate that because the networks had initially committed to covering our convention , all four nights, then at the last moment, have, because the democrats can't fill their convention time, are now kind of saying to us well, we're only going to cover three nights, that's very unfortunate. mrs. romney 's obviously got a great story to tell about governor romney and who he is as a person, getting in a little insight as to what kind of family man he is and the kind of person that makes him want to commit himself to helping this country. so i'll leave those decision toss the campaign as far as any changes that could potentially happen. she's currently slated for monday night. it would be unfortunate for the american people not to see her in prime time and she just has a real special way of being able to describe the governor and so i would hope that the networks reconsider. you know, we have four great days of programming and just because the democrats can't fill their time should not come down -- should not have to affect us.

>> i think it was always supposed to be three and three, but it's way above me, above my pay grade , so i'll stay out of that particular argument. stay tuned on the actual scheduling. sean , see you down there. thank you very much.

>> look forward to it. we'll have a great convention . thank you.