Sandy & the 2012 presidential election

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Hour 1

Perhaps the greatest surprise this October had nothing to do with a political misstep. Instead it was Mother Nature who intervened in the name of Hurricane Sandy. With a week left before the 2012 presidential election, in many parts of the country, some municipalities are without electricity, roads are blocked and voters’ attention has been focused on the clean-up ahead instead of on the race for the presidency and other important elections. The candidates’ campaign plans have been disrupted as well. President Obama has been in Washington directing the hurricane recovery effort but visited New Jersey yesterday and is expected to restart his campaign tour tomorrow. Governor Romney resumed his campaign stops yesterday with a visit to three cities in the battleground state of Florida.  In this hour of Radio Times we’ll ask what impact Sandy will have on next week’s presidential election? Will voter turnout be an issue? Does the President benefit from his handling of the federal response to the disaster? What can Governor Romney do to divert attention to his campaign? We’re joined by two guests:  DAVID LIGHTMAN is a political reporter for McClatchy Newspapers.  NEIL MALHOTRA is associate professor of Political Economy at Stanford, where he studies how disasters effect elections and voter behavior.


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[audio: 110112_100630.mp3]

Photo: AP Images/Steve Helber

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