ORLANDO, Fla. - With nine days to the election and the race locked in a dead heat, historic Hurricane Sandy has forced President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney to do something of a two-step.
Both candidates today are scheduled to continue their campaigns across critical battleground states, while also preparing for a potentially devastating storm and an opportunity to project some presidential posture.
Obama, who flew out of Washington on Sunday night ahead of Sandy, is scheduled to unite at a rally here with former President Bill Clinton - the first time both men have been together on the 2012 campaign trail.
"Whoever is able to get their voters out, they're the ones who are going to win Florida," Obama said during a stop to an Orlando campaign office Sunday night. "If we win Florida. we win this election."
But Obama quickly added that his "first priority" is to make sure the country is prepared for Sandy. He plans to return to the White House to monitor storm response immediately following his event, flying Air Force One into the heart of the hurricane just as its bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic.
The Obama campaign is encouraging supporters by email, Facebook, Twitter and on its homepage to donate to the Red Cross hurricane relief effort.
Romney, meanwhile, plans to keep his campaign at full throttle in three swing states today with stops in Avon Lake, Ohio; Davenport, Iowa; and West Allis, Wis.
His team on Sunday loaded storm-relief supplies onto the Romney campaign bus in Virginia, preparing for deliveries to local storm-relief centers after Sandy hits.
"I know that right now some people in the country are a little nervous about a storm about to hit the coast," Romney said at an Ohio rally on Sunday . "And our thoughts and prayers are with the people who will find themselves in harm's way."
The Obama and Romney campaigns have cancelled a combined 17 events between them due to the storm and safety concerns, sacrificing critical face-time with voters in the home stretch. Obama had planned to continue today to Youngstown, Ohio, and to northern Virginia, but both events were cancelled.
Both campaigns have also halted fundraising e-mails in states in the storm's path.
This "means that, you know, that's going to be putting a little bit more burden on folks in the field, because I'm not going to be able to campaign quite as much over the next couple of days," Obama told his volunteers here.
Obama campaign officials at the Chicago headquarters and in key states in the storm's path told ABC News that while some local canvassing events may be postponed or cancelled over the next few days, they are confident that the situation will not affect early voting or their get-out-the-vote efforts.
"Our historic grassroots organization is running at full speed in Florida and Eastern battleground states to persuade undecided voters and get our supporters out to the polls between now and Election Day," Obama spokesman Adam Fetcher said.
Privately, aides in both campaigns stressed that many key states - Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, Wisconsin - won't bear the brunt of the storm, if they face any impact at all. In Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, the only early voting is by absentee (mail), so aides said there were no concerns about getting people to polls.
In Virginia, one official noted, the State Board of Elections is now allowing voters who may be affected by the storm to vote absentee in-person.
Political strategists close to both campaigns said Sandy was an "October surprise" whose true impact remains as unpredictable as the outcome of the race itself.
The cancelled events for both candidates does mean the loss of precious time energizing and mobilizing voters and volunteers in a way that only the candidate himself can do. The storm will also surely divert media attention away from the candidates and their messages as they are trying to make their final sell.
However, unanticipated events and big national moments are also an opportunity for candidates to further define themselves and bolster their image as presidential material. Some experts note that by this point in the race it may be difficult to alter voters' impressions.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll found Obama and Romney locked in a dead heat at 48 to 48 percent on average since September, the tightest race in a comparable period of the past 76 years. It's also the first contest since 1960 in which neither candidate, in this period, has exceeded 50 percent support.
Obama will spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights in Washington monitoring the storm and directing federal resources as needed. He is expected to venture to Green Bay, Wis., on Tuesday; Cincinnati and Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday; and then do a muti-state blitz to round out the week. All of the travel plans are contingent on Sandy.
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/sandy-wallops-obama-romney-plans-100015322--abc-news-politics.html
limp bizkit stations of the cross nike foamposite galaxy bill maher seabiscuit dingo nba all star weekend
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 9-Oct-2012
Share ] 
It's ironic that for a country that invented the word entrepreneur, France has gained such a reputation for being frosty towards startups. Take French culture, where talk of money is generally frowned upon in favour of which ?cole you went to, or your opinion on philosophy or politics. Of course, this is a huge caricature, but it's the kind of background noise against which many French startup entrepreneurs have to battle, despite their increasingly healthy numbers in recent years. And they have indeed battled and fought. But was it all in vain now they have a stridently Left-wing government intent on taxing startups to within an inch of their life? And what will happen now that Canada's Quebec region has announced plans to woo 50,000 French entrepreneurs with a raft of new incentives? No wonder many entrepreneurs mounted a protest this afternoon in Paris in front of the National Assembly. It's time for a look at the predicament of "Les Startup Miserables."
