Obama races back to White House as hurricane threatens

US: President Barack Obama left the campaign trail Monday to lead his nation at a moment of crisis, steering the response to Hurricane Sandy, which left the endgame of the White House race in turmoil.

Republican Mitt Romney joined the president in cancelling campaign appearances as high winds, swamping tides and lashing rain hit the northeastern United States and conjured a moment of political peril for the rivals.

Coming so close to the neck-and-neck election on November 6, the potentially historic storm threw closely planned campaign strategies into disarray, could dampen early voting, and may drown out the candidates' closing arguments.

“This is going to be a big and powerful storm,” Obama warned after meeting disaster and emergency officials at the White House, and ditching events in battlegrounds Florida, Ohio and Virginia and rushing back to Washington.

Obama also struck a patriotic note, striving for national unity despite sharp political divides cleaving the United States.

“The great thing about America is, when we go through tough times like this, we all pull together,” Obama said, trying to project competence and authority, as he grabbed headlines with a sober televised statement at the White House.

“The election will take care of itself next week. Right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives.” Obama was directing the government response to the storm from the secure Situation Room below the White House, immediately setting up a contrast with his out-of-office challenger.

Romney cancelled campaign events later Monday in Wisconsin and all events on Tuesday as a mark of sensitivity towards millions in the path of the storm, but went ahead with scheduled appearances in Iowa and Ohio.

The Republican told supporters in Ohio that Americans on the East Coast were facing “very difficult times” in the storm. “There are families in harm's way that will be hurt, either in their possessions or perhaps in something more severe,” he said, and appealed for donations to the American Red Cross.

Romney was on a political tightrope, balancing a desire to use the precious last days of the campaign to maintain momentum, with a desire to avoid appearing oblivious to Americans affected by the hurricane.

He has already been accused of muscling in on tragedy for political gain -- over the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi last month -- and so can ill afford any missteps seen as motivated by a hope of an electoral dividend.

Equally, any errors by Obama in the wake of the storm could help Romney build his case that Benghazi was a symptom of a wider malaise and unraveling of leadership in the White House.

High-level campaign operatives deplore events they cannot control, hence the fabled history of the “October Surprise” -- the sudden happening, at home or abroad, with the potential to reshape the late stages of an election.

Though the disaster alert allowed Obama to leverage the advantage of incumbency and to showcase his leadership skills, it also left him carrying the can if the government's disaster response to the storm is revealed as lacking.

AFP