Mitt Romney can't afford to step off the stump, Hurricane Sandy or no. The election is a week away, he's still 22 electoral votes shy of victory, Condoleezza Rice and the storm event have washed away the last traces of what little momentum he had developed to this point, and his opponent is out there campaigning like hell just by being the incumbent during a "national disaster" (if I didn't know better, I'd think that Obama's campaign had brought New Jersey governor Chris Christie on as its chief spokesman).
But if he stays on the stump while said "national disaster" is still in play, he's an asshole.
Because he's Mitt Romney, he's trying to take the middle course: Changing campaign events into "relief events," trotting out new radio ads tripling down on his "Jeep is deserting America" lie (knowing Obama can't respond while in "I'm too busy being president to campaign" character), etc., but not doing the full-blown "kiss hands and shake babies" end-of-the-line campaign routine.
I don't see it working. It looks to me like Romney's only hope of winning next week is an assist from Obama -- some kind of massive public presidential screw-up. Absent that, Romney's stuck where he's at, and may even lose his tenuous grip on Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
