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Sandy suspends presidential campaign

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    Chris Stirewalt breaks down storm's impact

  • Duration 7:07
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Fox News alert President Obama canceling a third straight day of campaigning -- to the devastating storm.

The White House saying the president will not attend events scheduled for tomorrow in Ohio a key battleground state as you know.

Instead we are told mr.

Obama will remain in Washington to -- of the storm and the federal response.

But the president will get help from one of his big surrogate former President Bill Clinton campaigning for the democratic ticket in Colorado.

Today.

-- governor Romney adjusting his schedule as well.

The Republican presidential nominee canceling scheduled rallies today in Ohio and Iowa.

Instead the governor is in Ohio and helping to collect donations.

For storm relief.

And we are told he may visit storm ravaged New Jersey later this week.

His running mate Paul Ryan also scrapping rallies in Florida and Colorado.

The congressman mr.

Ryan in his home state of Wisconsin today thanking volunteers and helping out for helping out in storm relief efforts.

Well with the campaigns on hold just seven days out from the election.

Who benefits and who does not.

Crist -- and I think geopolitics editor and host a power play on foxnews.com.

So this mother nature hit the store added that the pause button.

On this race.

You eight days out from the presidential election Chris and you know at at some point this week that the -- going to be taken off the pause button and where are we then.

Well exactly perfectly -- because by the time we get to Thursday.

Things we back in full swing.

-- you know what Thursday is Thursday's into the hot zone of the election where you're so close to the vote that there's really not much not much time.

That people have the candidates have to change the trajectory of the race and there isn't time for big concepts are being ideas to -- and and you're just down in that final scramble so what hurricane sandy has done.

Is taken away these day means that both campaigns were planning to use to try to reinforce or change the trajectory of the race and Romney's case reinforce the trajectory of the race.

And president Obama's to try to change it to get out from underneath.

Romney.

Before we -- before mother nature -- that pause button we had a campaign in which governor Romney had the momentum.

And the polls were going in his favor.

But we had a president with an incredible get out the vote ground game in the critical swing states and the advantages of incumbency so.

How.

If at all did those two narratives.

Change given hurricane -- Well for the president any day in which his supporters can't be gotten to the polls for early voting in Ohio and in Virginia is bad.

Because they need every second that they can't to try to get out -- vote he's working on a democratic base election he's trying to win.

On the basis of maximizing getting all the tooth -- out of the tube that he possibly can't.

Among Democrats where -- what -- he's trying to do.

Is right away -- here and get independents and get others get moderates to come to his side and -- An already solid and already energized Republican base so for the president every minute.

That he can't be running -- the bands and sending people door to -- to try to squeeze that toothpaste tube is a moment that he'd that he needs and so the concern.

For Democrats who were who -- every projection every prediction that they've had all along was that they were going to be able to pull out -- narrow victory based on heavy heavy turnout efforts.

They cannot like losing these days.

There's no way that the president can be out -- the campaign trail right now especially after the criticism he took for going to Vegas.

-- -- we found out our ambassador in three other Americans have been murdered in Libya.

He can't he can't read I mean he cannot do that as a practical matter so he is in no Oval Office and he is doing what he needs to do as the president.

When the nation is hit with a natural disaster as we have Ben.

Does that affect people I mean an election like this where we've been looking at some huge issues 23 million people underemployed or unemployed.

And the question about which man has the better plan to help them.

-- people get moved by something like this in the days leading up to the election.

Well certainly Democrats are hoping that seeing the president looking like the commander in chief and doing those things and dealing with emergency situations.

As you point out doing what we didn't see after Ben Ghazi.

Doing that and coming and flexing the muscle that certainly helps reinforce his image but here's the bigger deal for Democrats the trajectory is set.

What they're working on is how do you get your folks out how do you get them there and sending it -- gets out but nothing moves them.

As much as seeing the president himself on the ground.

And say look I'm begging I need you to go do this meanwhile Romney is an encumbered by that as much yes he has to be careful to strike the right tone.

But he can be in those battleground states he can be in those places.

And say I'm with -- I'm rallying -- we have to be cool right now but come Thursday.

They'll be back to full blown campaign.

The president's team has been a very positive in their language.

Axelrod the president's senior advisor of saying look make no mistake about it -- we're winning.

And in anything you -- to the contrary from the other side is bluster.

How -- supposed to process setting for -- like how do you know you're winning when we haven't had the election yet but they.

They have -- early voting that they can look to we don't have the results of the early voting but we know party registration right.

We know party -- we also know what Gallup found out today.

Which is that the president's advantage in early voting has been wiped out.

That the Democrats talk a lot about specific and anecdotal instances.

On early voting but the president is not anywhere near where he was on early voting before.

Here's here's what we now.

After this pause it's not really a pause it's just that the coverage -- shifted to way to the hurricane.

After the pause we're gonna pick back up and start to get reliable polling on Thursday and Friday and one of two things will happen.

Either Romney's momentum -- of continued and perhaps accelerated or it will have died and the president will be on his trajectory to sort of drift across the finish line with just enough forward momentum to carry the narrow victory that he projected.

But we're not gonna know -- Thursday or Friday meantime in Boston at Chicago they can just be nervous and wait to find out where the heck people are going to be 72 hours from now.

Well there's a question too bad weather we really will know because some of these polling outfits like Gallup have suspended their daily tracking polling.

In the wake of same of these so you know how reliable are these numbers gonna be that we're gonna get at the end of the week crest.

They're going to be reliable.

But only after a few days we're gonna have this big an eruption right in the middle where you can't pay attention -- the polls too much because they're just screw it.

But by the end of the week -- now and you wanna talk about an exciting cliffhanger when it comes to politics to have this blackout period for the hurricane.

And then it picks back up I mean why we.

Yeah we might actually get to a point where we don't get the pollsters to tell us how people feel may actually have to just look at the candidates and make up our own minds.

Let's not get crazy all right Chris thank you -- -- you bet.

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