Historically, candidates have used the publicity afforded by the national conventions as an opportunity to define, or to redefine, their campaign to the American public. The Takeaway takes a look back at notable speeches of conventions past.

From the Republican National Convention, Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich speaks with John Mica, the Republican head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who has represented Florida’s 7th District on the state's east coast since 1993.

Even though it’s causing a hassle for Tampa’s many visitors this week, hurricanes aren’t that out of the ordinary for Floridians — and the storm won’t actually make landfall until it hits Mississippi and Louisiana tomorrow morning.

With tropical storm Isaac progressing towards hurricane status, the Republican National Convention has condensed the convention to fit into Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Organizers had scheduled one message for each of the four convention days — but with one less day, they'll have to cut one of their messages.

The political conventions are approaching, and hundreds of millions of dollars are flooding into Charlotte, North Carolina and Tampa, Florida. This money isn’t all from the candidates, nor is it from the party’s national leaderships. So where does it come from?

Akin continues to insist that he will stay in the race. “The good people of Missouri nominated me, and I’m not a quitter. And my belief is we’re going to take this thing forward. And by the grace of God we’re going to win this race,” Akin said on Mike Huckabee’s radio show yesterday.

Phyllis Diller’s stand up was a staple of nightclubs and television during the 1950s and early 1960s, a time when female comics were extremely rare. She passed away yesterday in her home in Los Angeles, at the age of 95. In adjective-packed obits, journalists described her as “sassy,” “outlandish,” and “tart-tongued.”

Paul Ryan is perhaps best known as the architect of the leading Republican plan to balance the budget. The book that may very well have influenced his economic ideals is George Gilder’s "Wealth and Poverty," a book regarded as the intellectual guide for Reaganomics and the Reagan White House in the 1980s.

In recent New Yorker articles, staff writer Jon Lee Anderson describes a country torn by civil war without clear factions. The campaign by President Bashar al-Assad against the rebels has been going on for 17 months, with some estimates placing the death toll at around 20,000.

A dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkakus in Japan has lead to rising tensions between the two countries. The New York Times reports groups of protesters in China number in the tens of thousands.

Six Marines were killed in Afghanistan earlier this month, allegedly by Afghan soldiers they were serving alongside. These Marines are among 31 American and NATO soldiers killed this year alone by Afghan allies. In response, NATO is implementing several new policies to protect its troops.

To most of America, Mitt Romney’s new running mate is still a relatively fresh face, but some voters have known Rep. Paul Ryan for over a decade. What do they have to say about him? 

To celebrate the 75th birthday of the electric guitar on Friday, we spoke with Rudy Pensa, a guitar expert and the owner of Rudy’s Music in Manhattan. Rudy and Todd Zwillich, who was guest-hosting on Friday, worked their way through the history of the electric guitar.

The closing ceremony for the Olympics was last night, but the Paralympics are still to come. They begin in London on August 29 and continue until September 9. All the while, Rio De Janeiro is preparing to host the Olympics in 2016.

It’s been three days since the power failure began in India, and the outage has grown into the largest ever. So what determines whether or not a power grid works or fails? Could what happened in India happen to us?

The financial recovery is happening very, very gradually, and the Federal Reserve's policy-making committee predicted in June that without any changes in the organization’s behavior, unemployment would decrease by only a small margin in the second half of the year if, in fact, it decreases at all. 

It’s been 30 years since the Individual Retirement Account model, or the 401(k), became the standard way for Americans to save for retirement. And it has failed — or so says Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics at the New School for Social Research.

The education system costs way more than it should, and doesn’t work nearly as well as it should, says a new report by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Angy Rivera came to the U.S. when she was three years old as an undocumented immigrant. Angy’s 21 now and writes the first and only undocumented immigrant advice column, "Ask Angy," where she responds to questions about “coming out” as undocumented.

Two centuries ago, Russia and Britain fought a war of influence over a region that rarely makes headlines: Central Asia. Today, a new game of influence is taking place in that same region, this time between the U.S., Russia and China.