Sandy forces postponement of American election campaign

WASHINGTON (AP) —

A hurricane that is threatening the U.S. East Coast has forced President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney to cancel up to two days of campaigning in the last full week of one of the closest presidential contests in recent U.S. history.



Hurricane Sandy is a powerful storm that will affect millions of people, President Obama warned today at a midday news conference.



The storm, with sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, is forecast to make landfall on the mid-Atlantic coast tonight or Tuesday morning and could affect as many as 60 million people.



Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has canceled its public session for today because of the storm.



While putting a severe limit on campaigning, the storm gave Obama the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in the face of crisis.



On the other side, there was the risk that the federal government, as in past emergencies, could be faulted for an ineffective response.



Obama cancelled campaign events in the key battleground state of Florida to hurry back to Washington and oversee the federal response to Hurricane Sandy, which was forecast to send a wall of water into the heavily urban Atlantic coast, from the capital to New York City.



Several states in that coastal area traditionally vote Democratic and supported Obama in 2008.



"The election will take care of itself next week," Obama said. "Right now, our number one priority is to make sure we are saving lives."



Parts of four competitive states were in the hurricane's path: Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and New Hampshire.



Those states and five others — Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nevada and Colorado — that don't reliably vote Democrat or Republican will decide the close election.



The storm threaten to draw attention from both candidates' campaigns and hinder early voting before the November 6 election.



Voters in many states are already casting ballots early, and about one-third of the electorate will have voted before Election Day.



Both campaigns used social media to urge supporters to donate to the Red Cross and said they would stop sending fundraising emails on Monday to people living in areas in the storm's path.



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