>>>
the wrath of sandy has blown the
presidential race
off course with just seven days until the election.
chuck todd
is nbc's political director and chief
white house
correspondent. chuck, good morning to you.
>> reporter:
good morning, savannah. it's hard to believe, believe it or not,
election day
is a week away, but the reality is that neither candidate for president may hit the campaign trail for another couple of days which leaves, of course,
precious little
time to persuade voters in this incredibly
close election
. with the campaign largely on hold,
president obama
hunkered down at
white house
prepared the nation monday for what could be sandy's long lasting impact.
>>
the public needs to prepare for the fact that this is going to take a long time for us to clean up. the good news is we will clean up, and we will get through this
>> reporter:
president awoke monday in orlando for what was supposed to be a one-day three-state blitz alongside former
president clinton
. instead, he and aides called an audible and they headed back to washington to focus on the storm. at the midday briefing mr. obama insisted the campaign was not on his mind.
>>
i'm worried about the impact on families, and i'm worried about the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation. you know, the election will take care of itself next week.
>> reporter:
meanwhile, for much of monday
mitt romney
tried to walk a fine line, balancing campaigning in
ohio
and iowa with compassion for storm victims. in
ohio
he appealed for americans to put politics aside.
>>
we've faced these kind of challenges before, and as we have, as soon as americans come together, and this looks like another time when we need to come together, all across the country, even here in
ohio
.
>> reporter:
still,
romney
did not entirely abandon politics.
>>
the people of the entire nation are counting on
ohio
because my guess is -- my guess is that if
ohio
votes me in as president, i'll be the next
president of the united states
.
>> reporter:
both candidates have cancelled all of their own public events for today. the president was supposed to be in colorado and wisconsin, and mr.
romney
had planned to be in new hampshire, but this doesn't mean the campaigns are not still battling below the radar. the latest flashpoint, a
romney
tv ad
running in
ohio
making this claim about jeep.
>>
obama took gm and
chrysler
into bankruptcy and sold
chrysler
to italians who are going to build jeeps in china.
>> reporter:
campaigning in
ohio
with former
president clinton
, vice president biden blasted the ad as false.
>>
chrysler
has fellow bliged to go public and say there is no truth to this. jeep has no intention of shifting production of its jeep models out of
north america
to china.
>> reporter:
and while
mitt romney
is technically not campaigning today, he's doing a storm relief event, savannah, in the
state of ohio
.
>>
all right. chuck, a lot of folks are asking us this morning, is there a possibility with these widespread power outages that could last days, if not weeks, is there a chance the
election day
itself could be delayed?
>> reporter:
it's very unlikely. look, the
presidential election
day is something that is set in the constitution. now, states run elections, and they can decide to postpone, if they wanted to, it's
happened before
. new
york city
, of course, postponed new
york city
elections on 9/11 on the day that it happened. they postponed that. now, that said what did come up yesterday during the fema calls with craig fugate and state officials was could states get reimbursed for having to, for instance, move voting precincts, get extra generators in to get the election going, that is what states are figuring out now, and that's the most likely scenario here is that people may find out their voting place is moved in order to get power to them, things like that, but the idea of a delay right now, that seems to be way, way out of the question and very, very unlikely.
>>
and very quickly, chuck, we are seeing an effect on
early voting
in
swing states
affece? by the storm.
>> reporter:
well, that is true. particularly virginia is the place when you look at the
battleground states
that's most affected by this, a little bit in
ohio
. so some things i know that maryland delayed some early votes so there's some of those delays. right now it doesn't seem to have a huge impact yet.
>>
all right.
chuck todd
, thank you.
“ ”