Storm provides Obama with a commander-in-chief moment

Source: Washington Post

For a day at least, Hurricane Sandy appears to have done for President Obama what he has not been able to do for himself.

In a campaign notable mostly for its negativity, the historic storm provided Obama with a commander-in-chief moment a week before Election Day. The president gained a rare moment of bipartisan praise, with Democratic and Republican governors alike commending the performance of the federal government. And the storm put on pause, for now, the sense that rival Mitt Romney had all the momentum in the home stretch.

On Wednesday, Obama will travel to New Jersey to tour damaged areas with Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a regular critic of the president who heaped praise on him in the aftermath of the storm, saying that “the president has been all over this and he deserves great credit.”

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The storm thrust Romney in the almost impossible position of trying to write a role for himself in the story that has gripped the nation’s attention. The GOP nominee held a relief event in Ohio to collect donations for storm victims, but the event had the trappings of a regular campaign rally, with the candidate’s standard theme music and biographical video. As Romney packed emergency supplies, he did not respond to reporters who asked whether he is reconsidering his earlier assertion that disaster management is a job that should be turned over to the states.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/storm-provides-obama-with-a-commander-in-chief-moment/2012/10/30/5e645952-22c2-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html