Hurricane Forces Obama to Balance Governing, Campaigning

President Barack Obama faced the delicate task on Sunday of balancing his response to a potentially huge natural disaster with his own tough re-election effort as Hurricane Sandy bore down on the U.S. East Coast nine days before Election Day.
Trying to demonstrate that he had learned the lessons of White House predecessor George W. Bush's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Obama sought to project the image of a president fully engaged in marshaling resources to deal with a looming national emergency.

Visiting the federal storm-response headquarters in Washington, Obama warned East Coast residents to prepare for a "serious and big" storm that will be slow-moving and might take time to clear up. But he vowed the government would "respond big and respond fast" after it strikes.

Even as he pledged to stay on top of the storm threat, Obama - after shuffling his campaign travel because of the approaching hurricane - stuck to his plan to fly to Florida on Sunday night for a rally in Orlando on Monday.

But he scrapped an appearance later in the day in Ohio - considered the most critical election swing state - so that he could return to Washington to monitor what could be one of the largest storms to ever hit the U.S. mainland.

The hurricane threat also scrambled Republican challenger Mitt Romney's schedule, but he too was going ahead with some of his events.

With Sandy forecast to barrel ashore between the mid-Atlantic states to New England late on Monday, Obama faces an increased risk to his prospects in a tight presidential race if the government's emergency apparatus fails to perform well.

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