Obama, Romney respond to Hurricane Sandy, as it upends campaign plans Hurricane Sandy upended the closely fought presidential campaign only eight days before election day on Monday, as President Obama and Mitt Romney canceled campaign events, ripped up their schedules and tried to juggle the tricky politics of dealing with the storm. The responses of the two candidates, who have offered starkly different visions for America, gave voters even more contrasts to evaluate as both worked to find the right tone. Romney struggled slightly to hit a note that sounded presidential while also maintaining his apparent momentum in the race: He vowed initially to press ahead with his campaign events but then abruptly canceled most of them for the duration of the storm. Obama, after barnstorming the nation's battleground states last week and shouting himself hoarse at rallies, pivoted to his role as commander-in chief. He canceled an appearance in Orlando, Fla. with former President Bill Clinton, jetted back to Washington, convened a storm briefing in the White House situation room and then addressed the nation. "Obviously, everyone is aware at this point that this is going to be a big and powerful storm,"" Obama said. "Millions of people are going to be affected."" Asked about the election, the president begged off from political considerations. "I am not worrying at this point about the impact on elections,"" he said. "Right now, our number one priority is to make sure we are saving lives."" Yet politics hung over the day, if more discreetly than usual, as both campaigns recalibrated their strategies in a race widely seen as a dead heat that is now essentially frozen in place until the storm is over - and perhaps beyond. The Obama campaign covened a conference call to say the president's victory is inevitable, while Romney aides cited newspaper endorsements of the Republican candidates and evidence of his momentum in the critical state of Ohio. The effects of the monster storm went beyond the candidates's messages and extended to the vital mechanics of the campaign itself. In an extraordinary move so close to an election, Gallup suspended its daily tracking poll as of Monday night in response to the weather. Aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked if Obama had the power to delay the election if there were still widespread power outages. Carney said he didn't know. Even the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report, due out Friday and considered vitally important in a campaign that has turned on the nation's sluggish economy, stood to potentially be affected. Amid news reports, Labor Department spokesman Carl Fillichio said that staffers "are working hard" to get the report out on time and that "it is our intention that Friday will be business as usual regarding the October Employment Situation report." But Fillichio and other officials could not rule out the possibility of delaying the report's release. Some officials noted that the analysts who prepare the jobs report are considered "non-essential" personnel who did not report for work on Monday as the storm hit the Washington area.