As the Olympics have come to a close and the Democratic National Convention is set to begin, Republicans will have an Olympic task ahead of them this week to keep their message in the minds of American voters.

With that in mind, the Republican National Party has set up shop in Denver , less than a mile from the Democratic Conventional hall, to try and divert some of the attention away from the festival that will lead to the official nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate.

According to the Associated Press, Republicans have opened what they call a “war room”:   a media center that will try to counter every criticism from Democrats throughout the week, offer interviews and press conferences of key Republican figures like Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney to media outlets in key swing states like Missouri, and it has a website called www.notready08.com that has devoted itself to do all it can to proclaim Barack Obama as a celebrity that is not ready to ascend to the White House.

Is this effort by Republicans a stroke of collective genius in their attempt to short-circuit Obama’s popularity?   Or, will Americans resent the GOP for butting in uninvited into the Democratic National Convention?   We’ll have to wait and see as the convention runs its course.