Will Hurricane ‘Frankenstorm’ Sandy Affect The Presidential Election For Obama and Romney?

Hurricane Sandy has cut across Jamaica and Cuba and is about to make her way towards the U.S. Florida has already been issued a tropical storm warning from the National Hurricane Center.

Sandy is predicted to merge with a storm from the west into a perfect “Frankenstorm” hitting the Northeas tclose to Halloween, but could it affect the campaign trail for presidential candidates Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama?

The storm will be hitting in the last week before the Nov. 6 election, and early voting already is under way in some states.

Mark McKinnon, a former media strategist for President George W. Bush who later founded No Labels, a bipartisanship promoting group, said the hurricane is bringing the campaigns something they both despise: uncertainty.

“Campaigns are all about control,” he told the New York Times. “So in the closing days, they fear any external events that could disrupt the game plan. Ain’t no leashes for Mother Nature.”

Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the National Hurricane Center, said the storm is just days away, but that depending on its path it could disappear into the Atlantic.

However, computer models are predicting that Hurricane Sandy will meet up with another storm system, which could produce the grave “perfect storm” that could potentially devastate the North East Coast.

“Now you’ve got this giant storm complex with a lot of energy,” Feltgen said. When storm systems combine they produce high winds and heavy rain which could lead to extensive damage.

Feltgen warned, “Everybody along the U.S. East Coast needs to be paying attention to this right now,” though “we’re not telling people to rush to the grocery stores.” But he explained that everyone should be watching. “Let’s not go overboard with this thing,” he said, “but you should at least start becoming aware of it.”