Obama and Romney's New Threat: Hurricane Sandy

         Hurrricane Sandy is not only threatening to cause serious damage to cities on the East Coast, but it is also creating major roadblocks in both Obama and Romney's campaign. Both candidates have cancelled many campaign events scheduled for the next few days while citizens on the East Coast are preparing for the heavy storm.
         States that lie in Sandy's projected path, such as Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland, are making changes to their Election Day plans to accommodate for the storm. Maryland and North Carolina both have early in-person voting which could be drastically affected by the impending hurricane. Other states, such as Rhode Island, Delaware and New York have only mail-in early voting and therefore may not be as significantly impacted. For all these East Coast states, cleaning up after the storm will probably take precedent over going to the polls to vote.
         Romney, Obama and both their running mates have all been forced to modify their campaign plans. All four candidates have cancelled events in Virginia. Obama plans to return to the White House to "continue to monitor Hurricane Sandy." This potentially gives Romney a leg-up on Obama, scheduling campaign events in Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Ohio (twice). However, Obama's leadership skills in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy could possibly boost his image, but it could also potentially be disastrous for him if he handles the situation poorly.
         It is still too early to tell whether or not the storm will drastically affect the outcome of the election, but there is a definite potential for the hurricane to impact the rest of the election.