AlHijjah 13, 1433, Oct 29, 2012, SPA -- A hurricane that threatened the U.S. East Coast forced President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney to cancel up to two days of campaigning in the last full week of one of the closest presidential contests in recent U.S. history. While putting a severe limit on campaigning, the storm gave Obama the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in the face of crisis. Obama cancelled campaign events in the key battleground state of Florida to hurry back to Washington and oversee the federal response to Hurricane Sandy, which was forecast to send a wall of water into the heavily urban Atlantic coast, from the capital to New York City. Obama was scheduled to make a public statement on the storm at midday.
