Video: Sandy affects politics

>> the campaigns have scrubbed 19 separate events between the two of them, limiting campaigning is going on today. in fact, here's some live pictures from jacksonville, florida where congressman paul ryan is expected to kick off an event any minute from now. joining me now is keith boykin , dominico montenaro. you have the campaign goes on sort of, but at this point what does "sort of" apply to? you have big events canceled at in the point, 19 in all as i mentioned so far.

>> i think this morning a lot of events were still on, and then they decided to halt a lot of that. the only person you saw on tv today was president obama putting his president hat on. man, we have eight days to go, and those are precious days for both campaigns to get out there and be able to win over some of these undecided voters or get their voters out, especially with early voting going on. we see right now a big pause on the campaign and president obama more in the spotlight with mitt romney taking a back seat because president obama is in charge of the government. that's just the way it is.

>> that is the way it is, but that did not stop at least some campaigning going on for the governor. as i mentioned, you have this eef event with paul ryan and bill clinton in florida . he was supposed to be in florida with the president. let me play what former president clinton had to say.

>> i was supposed to be the warm-up man for president obama today, but that storm on the east coast had other ideas.

>> but obviously the show does go on in some capacity, but talk me quickly about the perils for both of them. obviously, the president is the president. this is his responsibility, to have the concern of the american people on the forefront. what does governor romney do or say, other than this point that he's trying to be sense and pull off the campaign trail tomorrow and not today?

>> it's no accident that bill clinton was in orlando. that's a key swing area right in the heart of that i-4 corridor. there was a cnn poll out today showing a 50/49 race between the two sides. pretty much a dead-even race. missing out on a day or two to get people out to the polls can really hurt both campaigns. mitt romney has to walk this fine line and so does the president not wanting to look too political in a situation like this when you could, as bill karins mentioned, see people out of power in the millions potentially for the next few days.

>> let's bring chip in on this. you don't want to look too political, but one thing some have noted is governor romney made a couple of phone calms to virginia governor bob mcdonald and chris christie , two republican governors negating to call governors who are democrats overseeing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people who could be impacted. was that a bad quote-unquote call no pun intended to make, chip?

>> no, i don't think so. everybody is on the same page here. this storm is historic, and we don't know exactly. there's no precedent to this. the president set the right tone in his conference. i think governor romney called the two republican governors that he knew and he's friends with. he's been through it before but on a smaller level in massachusetts when he was governor. it's important for them to get out. i don't think it's a bad political call. the only thing you can do bad over the next seven days is be too political on this. that's the real question.

>> let me quickly say because i know keith wants to get in on this. you call your friends. your friends are the american people , not just those with republican governors with all due respect?

>> i don't think anybody was questioning this was a partisan phone call .

>> that's what i was asking you. you said it was a good call originally. keith , let me get you in on this. these are people right now. this storm has been deadly. it took many lives in the caribbe caribbean. we know the potential here, and if it does not cause loss of life, we know damage of property and the lingering impact. with that said, what does the president need to do to show people , listen, that i'm not caught up too much in the campaign and have my eye on this ball and that ball is the american people right now.

>> i think he did exactly that today in his press conference where he said the election will take care of himself. he canceled his campaign events. the problem, though, tamron, is i think governor romney has politicized this event. he continued to campaign today. paul ryan continues to campaign today.

>> clinton and biden were out today.

>> president obama is the president of the united states . by the way, we only have one president. i don't like the idea of mitt romney frying to go around and pretend he's the president of the united states when he's not. president obama canceled campaign events, and then governor romney -- this is a statement about what you do as president. that's why this storm is an important issue. you have to be president of all the american people and not president of new jersey and virginia because they have republican governors. why didn't mitt romney bother to call the other three? maybe because he has a record where he said back in the defwat last year when he was running trying to be severely conservatively that he would cut fema funding and send it back to the states and privatize it. this is why it's so important, because it illustrates the importance of government and illustrates the two fundamentally two different choices of the two candidates running for the highest office in land.

>> chip, i think we have that sound from the debate. at the time governor romney was asked whether or not with fema and its financial problems if he would cut fema or eliminate fema, and he said it would be up to the states. chuck todd pointed out in a state like florida , fema is very pob lar as is the former governor of that state, jeb bush , because of the help and aid given to people as a result of fema. we know fema has been criticized the in the past, but in large part people need fema in these kinds of crises. when governor romney said at the time he would scrap fema, he mentioned privatizing the aid that would be given in a situation like that, is it fair that this comes up at this point? when would he do in a situation like this when he stated he would not support fema?

>> i think if mitt romney was president of the united states he'd do anything and everything he could to protect the american people . after a natural disaster like this, he would be on the ground to make sure that fema was there to support the states, to support the local enforcement and support the first responders to make sure they had everything they need, to protect people to make sure they get people's power back on and back to normal. this is a historic storm . everybody is pulling together and it's not the time to politicize the issues.

>> is it a fair question to ask in a situation like this, a lot of folks need the help and assistance of fema. in that debate the governor said he would eliminate fema and discussed the fact of private companies coming in for aid at this time. is it a fair question without looking through a partisan prism? when you bring it up the dap before the storm hit the country.

>> it already hit the country.

>> the high tide is tonight, but this is what's going to happen. you politicize it by bringing it up. mitt romney , if he was president of the united states , he would be doing a lot of the same things barack obama has done. i think barack obama has set the same tone. i think mitt romney has said i'll support the president. this is one country. we'll support all americans on this. this is not the time to politicize fema or something like that.

>> that's exactly the reason why this conversation is so important. if you think that obama and rom my would do exactly the same thing, it's not a question about their behavior but their policies. the policy of one guy is saying we would cut the funding for the programs that actually providing emergency management assistance to people in need . the policy of another guy is saying we will actually help people in need throughout country. it's a funt mental question about the role of government.

>> there's no question it is about the role of government, and i think this is a thing that government can do that the private sector can't do. when governor romney was talking about fema, he wasn't talking about getting rid of foiirst responders and fema. he wanted to operate it working better.

>> he discussed privatizing as well. let me give the audience an important update on the numbers right now. 20,000 people in sux ses county, delaware are affected by the hurricane. we're talking about lives. 25,000 people in sussex county , delaware under a mandatory evacuation order for that county and the southernmost counties in delaware . these are live pictures right now out of delaware as well. chip, i greatly appreciate your time. dominico, what should we look for tomorrow, since these campaign trail events have been nixed at least for now?

>> with the storm 's impact likely to hit tomorrow the hardest, i think both campaigns will watch the weather reports as closely as we're watching the news and just seeing just how widespread this does become and just how devastating it could be. whether or not the two campaigns decide to go nid to help or hang back and just see, watch and wait and see what happens.

>> thank you very much. i greatly appreciate it. chip, thank you. dominico, thank you. keith , i appreciate your time as

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/49599899/

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