“Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls because we believe that the more people come out, the better we’re going to do,” a blunt Axelrod said. Historically, a large election turnout has generally favoured Democrats.
But trouble looms for conservatives in Virginia’s rural southwest, where residents were in for a major snowstorm that could keep many in the largely Republican region away from the polls.
Another place the storm could directly affect the vote is Philadelphia, the Democratic bastion in left-leaning Pennsylvania. Nearly 400,000 people were without power in and around the city Monday night.
Democrats need Philadelphians to vote in large numbers; if they stay home it presents an opportunity for Romney to snatch a vital state.
The storm also offered opportunity, albeit on a political knife-edge, for Obama, allowing him to pose as a cool, effective leader, marshalling government resources at a moment when citizens most need them.
Should the federal response fall short, it could revive bitter memories of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and leave some undecided voters feeling like they would prefer change in the White House.
“Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls because we believe that the more people come out, the better we’re going to do,” David Axelrod.
Former president George W. Bush was widely seen as having bungled the handling of Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. The failure of authorities in the ensuing emergency response tainted the rest of his presidency.
Sandy also posed peril for Romney – not just as Obama pulls the levers of incumbency, but as it threatened to drown out his closing arguments ahead of the November 6 election, with days of storm-dominated news coverage.
Romney cancelled campaign events in Virginia but he kept a date Monday in each of two toss-up states, Ohio and Iowa.
He holds another event Tuesday in Ohio, perhaps the key battleground of the election, but has shifted it to a “storm relief event” which would present him with an opportunity to show leadership from outside of Washington.
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