Stormy politics

Between Tropical Storm Issac delaying the start of the Republican National Convention earlier this fall and Hurricane Sandy now wreaking havoc on the East Coast, it seems Mother Nature doesn’t think the two presidential candidates have faced quite enough challenges this election season.

Given the heavily scripted, down to the last second nature of campaigning, this storm has and will continue to muck up the candidates’ final campaigning plans in critical ways.   

Both candidates will likely spend time addressing the states affected by the hurricane, time they would usually have spent focusing on important swing states like Ohio or Colorado.

They have also both had to limit their campaigning.

President Barack Obama has sent out first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to campaign for him while he attends briefings in Washington, D.C.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has canceled several campaign events out of sensitivity to those affected by the storm.

The media as a whole has been focusing less on the election and devoting more time to the horrific storm and the subsequent cleanup and recovery efforts, as it should.

This means the two men will have to fight to gain crucial coverage during the last week, a time vitally important in influencing last minute voters.

Undecided voters will see their last week to make a choice between candidates filled with Romney and Obama navigating the storm and clean-up, rather than discussing larger ideologies and plans.

This can be a time for Obama to demonstrate his command or a time that can bring back echoes of former president George Bush’s less-than-well received Hurricane Katrina performance. In some ways, there is more to gain or lose for Obama here than Romney.

Voters will be reminded, as Obama repeatedly stressed during the final debate, that he is the commander in chief, the one currently sitting in the Oval Office. A positive performance in this time could be a bonus for Obama’s image, reinforcing his claims that he is calm and in control.

Meanwhile, Romney is limited in what he can do in response to the storm, but he doesn’t have the same potential for failure. He will focus on maximizing the effectiveness of his now limited campaign.

Romney’s camp had been planning on a last minute blitz strategy of television advertisements that will now likely be pulled or rearranged due to the storm.
He will need to re-examine the tone of these ads, so he doesn’t appear overly political or petty in a time of crisis.

This is a challenge both Obama and Romney will face as they discuss the storm.
Romney has also received some flak for his statements during the June 2011 CNN primary debate that states should have a bigger role in disaster
relief.

His campaign quickly released a statement stressing that Romney would not abolish Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that he continues to believe that states are in the best position to aid communities in times of disaster.

It’s still unclear just how much the storm will affect voting behavior.

Early voting has been shut down in several East Coast states. In lower-income areas, many of which usually lean Democratic, voting will likely be hurt by the storm.

Sandy reinforces the fact that, until Nov. 7 rolls around and a president is chosen, the actions of Romney and Obama are viewed through an all-important political prism. Nothing the two men say or do is not carefully thought out and scripted, but this storm throws a huge challenge in the face of both of their campaigns.

Perhaps an undecided voter herself, Mother Nature is throwing out one final test to see how the presidential candidates measure up in the last week before the election.

­— gwinslow@indiana.edu