Updated 3:15 pm: Twitter has a way of really highlighting the comity in Washington.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R), upset with Harry Reid saying Hurricane Katrina was "nothing in comparison" to Hurricane Sandy and the devastation caused to the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area, lashed out on the social network calling the Senate majority leader an "idiot."

"Sadly, Harry Reid has again revealed himself to be an idiot, this time gravely insulting Gulf Coast residents," Vitter Tweeted, linking to a story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Vitter later also released a statement with the same language and adding, "Both Katrina and Sandy were horribly destructive storms that caused real human misery.  And by most any measure, Katrina was our worst natural disaster in history. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused 1,833 deaths and over $108 billion in damage. Hurricane Sandy has caused 131 deaths and $65 billion in damage."

On Friday, Reid said the following on the floor, urging passage of Sandy funding:

"I really do believe it is important that I have the record reflect the reason we have gotten as far as we have on Sandy is because of the senior Senator from New York. It is too bad that it has taken so long. When we had that devastation from Katrina, we were there within days taking care of Mississippi, Alabama, and especially Louisiana--within days. We are now past 2 months with the people of New York and New Jersey.

"The people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt but nothing in comparison to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey. Almost 1 million people have lost their homes; 1 million people lost their homes. That is homes, that is not people in those homes. So I think it is just unfortunate that we do not have the relief for New York and New Jersey and the rest already. It has to be done. We have to meet the needs of the American people when an act of God occurs."

The Times-Pic writes:

"Sandy devastated some of the nation's most populated areas, but it didn't come close to Katrina. Hurricane Katrina, and the flooding that followed when federally built levees failed, killing  1,833 and causing more than $145 billion in damage. Sandy has been blamed for 120 deaths and over $80 billion in damage."

Monday afternoon, Reid released a statement saying he "misspoke" on Friday:

"In my recent comments criticizing House Republicans for threatening to betray Congress' tradition of providing aid to disaster victims in a timely fashion regardless of region, I simply misspoke. I am proud to have been an advocate for disaster victims in the face of Republican foot-dragging, from Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Sandy, from fires in the west to tornadoes in the Midwest. I have worked hard with Senator Landrieu to ensure that the people of the Gulf Coast have the resources they need to fully recover, and I will continue to advocate on their behalf until the region is fully recovered."

The House passed a $9.7 billion Sandy recovery aid package Friday, which the Senate took up and passed by unanimous consent. The House is expected to take up another $51 billion aid package as a result of Sandy Jan. 15th, after it returns from recess.

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- First lady Michelle Obama told a crowd of supporters today that she is "heartbroken" by the toll of Hurricane Sandy.

"We are heartbroken about the lives that have been lost and all the damage that has been done in so many of our communities," Obama said, adding that her husband, President Barack Obama, is working "around the clock" with governors and mayors and first responders. 

"I know that one of things that we do in times of crisis is come together," Obama said.

It was a message of unity that may have been tinged with politics, too, evoking images of Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie touring the devastated New Jersey coastline yesterday.

Christie, Republican, has been one of the president's fiercest critics but this week has praised his leadership.

The first lady's event here in Jacksonville drew 4,700 people, the campaign said.

The crowd was treated to a brief show from Stevie Wonder beforehand, who told the audience that the president is "for all people."

"You know what amazes me is when I hear all these various people talking crazy," Wonder said of the president's opponents. "I say, 'They must be blinder than me.'"

The first lady delivered her usual early vote message, declaring that voting early and volunteering is part of the campaign's "five-day plan" in the run up to Nov. 6.

Earlier, a campaign field organizer announced that vans were waiting to bring members of the crowd to a polling station inside a city library.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed President Barack Obama on Thursday, invoking Hurricane Sandy and the president's work to address climate change.

As New York reels from the fallout of this week's hurricane, which caused 37 deaths in the city, Bloomberg said Obama was better-suited than Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to curb carbon emissions.

"The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast – in lost lives, lost homes and lost business – brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief," Bloomberg wrote. "Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be – given this week's devastation – should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."

The three-term mayor and billionaire further lauded Obama for taking "major steps to reduce our carbon consumption." In turn, Bloomberg said that on the issue of climate change, Romney had "reversed course, abandoning the very cap-and-trade program he once supported."

A former Republican who has since declared himself independent, Bloomberg did not make an endorsement for president in 2008. He cited other issues, including Obama's health care reform law, approach to abortion rights and support for same-sex marriage, in reaching his conclusion.

Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks to the media during a news conference about Updates to New Yorkers on Preparations for Hurricane Sandy in New York, October 26, 2012.

"I'm honored to have Mayor Bloomberg's endorsement. I deeply respect him for his leadership in business, philanthropy and government, and appreciate the extraordinary job he's doing right now, leading New York City through these difficult days," Obama said in a statement.

The endorsement comes, though, amid one of the worst storms to batter the New York area in recent history, Obama's response to which has drawn him plaudits from a bipartisan array of figures, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

Obama also added: "While we may not agree on every issue, Mayor Bloomberg and I agree on the most important issues of our time - that the key to a strong economy is investing in the skills and education of our people, that immigration reform is essential to an open and dynamic democracy, and that climate change is a threat to our children's future, and we owe it to them to do something about it."

*** UPDATE *** An Obama campaign official told NBC's Kristen Welker it's impossible to know the impact of the endorsement but called it a "net positive" citing the fact that Bloomberg has an audience of independent-minded voters. Campaign officials say they were made aware the of the endorsement before Bloomberg announced it.  

One Republican operative suggested the endorsement could actually hurt the president calling Bloomberg "the most anti-gun politician" in the country. The operative predicted the endorsement won't play well in states with heavy-hunting populations like, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Minnesota.  "So congratulations, Mr. President," the operative said sardonically. 

President Barack Obama leaned on the power of incumbency in his first campaign event after Hurricane Sandy, striking a unifying tone at a late-morning rally in Wisconsin while ridiculing GOP nominee Mitt Romney's effort to seize the mantle of "change." 

"After four years as president, you know me by now," said Obama, who jogged down the stairs of Air Force One to the waiting crowd in Green Bay.

"Let me tell you, Wisconsin: we know what change looks like," the bomber jacket-clad president said at another point in the speech. "And what the governor is offering sure ain’t change."

The president and Romney each turned to their closing arguments for voters, just five days before Election Day and in the wake of a hurricane-induced campaign pause.

Speaking Thursday morning in Virginia, where he hadn't appeared in 15 days, Romney appealed to themes that have dominated his campaign for months. The former Massachusetts governor argued that the nation's economy couldn't withstand another four years of a Democrat in the White House.

And Romney revived his experience in the private sector as his chief qualification versus Obama, seizing on a throwaway line from the president during a weekend interview on MSNBC about naming a "secretary of business."

"He’s got to find something to suggest it’s going to better over the next four years. And so he came up with an idea last week which his he’s going to create the department of business," Romney told a crowd of 3,000 in Roanoke. "I don’t think adding a new chair in his cabinet will help add millions of jobs on Main Street."

He added: "We don’t need a secretary of business to understand business we need a president who understands business, and I do."

The campaign resumed its aggressive tenor on Thursday after a more subdued tone in the wake of this week's hurricane. Romney and Obama's aides did battle in the press over the question of which candidate has momentum on his side entering the home stretch.

A series of NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls released early Thursday suggested the president has an advantage in Iowa, but faces tighter contests with Romney in New Hampshire and Wisconsin (a reliably blue state which Republicans have sought to put in play this cycle).

In his bid to overtake the president, Romney revived his assertion that he was the candidate of "change" -- taking direct aim at the sentiment that propelled Obama's 2008 election.

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama waves at supporters during a campaign rally at Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on November 1, 2012.

"We need real change. For real change we’re going to have to take a different course," Romney said. "And I think that’s what Americans are going to do on Nov. 6."

That assertion earned Romney a rebuke from Obama, who accused his Republican opponent of masquerading familiar Republican proposals as new and fresh.

"In the closing weeks of this campaign, Gov. Romney has been using all his talents as a salesman to dress up these very same policies that failed our country so badly, the very same policies we've been cleaning up after for the past four years," Obama said.

David Goldman / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves as he takes the stage for a campaign event at a window and door factory, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, in Roanoke, Va.

The president launched into an almost wistful look back at his first term in arguing his case for a second. He acknowledged that not all Americans agreed with his positions, but, "You know what I believe, you know where I stand."

Obama's event also allowed the president, in many ways, the opportunity to remind voters that is the acting commander in chief, including his more upbeat opening in Wisconsin talking about the hurricane.

"We've also been inspired these past few days -- because when disaster strikes, we see America at its best. All the petty differences that consume us in normal times, all seem to melt away," he said. "There are no Democrats or Republicans during a storm -- they're just fellow Americans."

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

The storm continued to cast a pall over the campaign, though the sharp rhetoric returned to normal. But Ann Romney reached a moment of levity in Ohio when asking voters to donate to the Red Cross via text message, using a number that became associated with one of her husband's Republican primary foes.

"What does that remind you of? Herman Cain's 9-9-9!" she said to laughter. "You can remember that."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has adamantly insisted that presidential politics are the furthest thing from his thoughts during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, though that hasn’t stopped some from filtering his praise for President Barack Obama through a political prism.

The pugnacious New Jersey governor, who supports Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over Obama this fall (and delivered the keynote address at Romney’s nominating convention), has heaped effusive praise on Obama’s handling of Hurricane Sandy, the massive superstorm to wreak havoc in the northeast, and especially the Jersey Shore.

Larry Downing / Reuters

President Barack Obama and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie talk with survivors of Hurricane Sandy in a community center while touring damaged areas in Brigantine, New Jersey, October 31, 2012.

“I want to thank the president for coming here today. It's really important to have the president of the United States acknowledge all the suffering that's going on here in New Jersey and I appreciate it very much,” Christie said this afternoon as he and Obama toured the devastation. “We're going to work together to make sure we get ourselves through this crisis and get everything back to normal.”

Obama was similarly complimentary, telling people at the Brigantine community center that Christie, who is up for re-election next year in deep-blue New Jersey, “is working overtime to make sure that as soon as possible everybody can get back to normal.”

The two appeared together, along with the New Jersey congressional delegation, following their tours to give similar remarks on camera.

The mutual praise is an outgrowth of both leaders’ handling of a natural disaster, but it coincides with a crucial juncture in the presidential campaign, with just days to go until Election Day. Obama is trying to preserve an advantage in swing states as Romney barnstorms the country in an effort to subsume the incumbent president.

Christie rebuffed suggestions on Tuesday that there were political implications to his work with the administration.

"I've got 2.4 million people out of power. I've got devastation on the shore. I've got floods in the northern part of my state,” he said on Fox News. “If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don't know me."

And the Romney campaign gave Christie a pass for his work with Obama on Wednesday, dismissing a question about whether the GOP nominee was annoyed by the New Jersey governor’s praise for the president.

“Gov. Christie's doing his job. He's the governor of the state that's been hit by a very, very horrific storm,” Romney adviser Russ Schriefer said in a conference call with reporters. “He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing as governor of New Jersey. And the president is doing what he needs to be doing as president.”

That won’t necessarily stop observers from searching for political implications in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, especially so close to Nov. 6.

“I am hesitant to kind of make political calculations about the impact of an event that resulted in the deaths of 50 people and the loss of $50 billion in property,” senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said on a separate conference call this morning. “This was a disaster of huge proportions, and the president is doing what his responsibilities require -- and that includes going to New Jersey, as is what he's done in the case of every major disaster during the course of his presidency, to offer the support of the people of our country, to tour the scene himself, to speak firsthand with the first responder and the elected officials at the scene.”

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

Obama will return to the campaign trail on Thursday after canceling three days’ worth of political events. And Romney on Wednesday was mostly tentative in attacking Obama, opting instead for a softer tone and words of encouragement for recovery efforts in the northeast.

Axelrod suggested that the storm essentially washed out several days of campaigning, during which point there was no movement in the jockeying between Romney and the president.

“Wherever you think this race is, it tended to freeze the race because people are focused on the storm,” he said. “That's what's been in the news; normally the election would have been in the news. So I think it's fair to say that that is the case.”

But as a series of polls suggest Romney is trailing in some battleground states, those days might also be crucial opportunities lost.

TAMPA, FL -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney reined in his criticism of President Barack Obama on Wednesday, signaling a softer tone at the outset of a three-stop swing through Florida coinciding with the president's trip to New Jersey to survey hurricane damage.

Returning to the campaign trail after cancelling several campaign events out of respect to victims of Hurricane Sandy, Romney joined several prominent Florida Republicans in blending a pitch for storm recovery support with more traditional political fanfare.

In his first formal campaign event (Romney morphed one planned stop in Ohio into a "relief event" on Tuesday), Romney struck hopeful notes.

"You should know I could not be in this race if I were not an optimist. I believe in the future of this country I know we have huge challenges, but I’m not frightened by them, I’m invigorated by the challenge," Romney told supporters gathered in an airplane hangar here near the close of his remarks. "We’re going to take on these challenges we’re going to overcome them!"

And Romney included an entreaty for donations to the Red Cross as the East Coast reels from the impact of the hurricane earlier this week. (Romney himself made a donation to the Red Cross, an aide told NBC News.)

"If you have an extra dollar or two, send them along and keep the people who are in harms – who have been in harms way, who’ve been damaged either personally or through their property, keep them in your thoughts and prayers," Romney said. "We love all of our fellow citizens.  We come together in times like this and we want to make sure that they have a speedy and quick recovery from their financial and in many cases, personal loss."

Romney was joined on the trail by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the latter of whom noted that Floridians are more familiar with hurricanes than most of the nation, and urged the roughly 2,000 attendees here to pay back the generosity they have experienced after past storms.

"People are going to be living with the aftermath of the storm, and so our hearts and our prayers go out to them, and also our help," Rubio said. "If you see on the screen the number you can text the Red Cross and make your donation. We have been the beneficiary of these donations in the past. Let's make sure we pay it forward for our neighbors and fellow Americans up north who are suffering."

Bush, who had to handle numerous hurricanes during his time as governor, also waded into the politics of disaster relief, suggesting that local governments contributed more to recovery efforts than the federal government.

"My experience in all this emergency response business is that it is the local level and the state level that really matters," he said to applause. "That if they do their job right the federal government part works out pretty good."

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney greets audience members at a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida October 31, 2012.

But today's event was certainly a return to the issues that have driven the campaign for the last year -- with Romney criticizing the president's stewardship of the economy indirectly, and offering his own plan in contrast.

“My view is pretty straight forward and that is I believe that this is time for America to take a different course, that this should be a turning point for our country, and I say that because I look at where we are and with 23 million Americans – you think about that. These are real people. These are folks trying to put food on the table," Romney said. "Twenty-three million people struggling to find a good job. This is something that requires in my view a different path than we’ve been on."

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

ONTARIO, OH — Arizona Sen. John McCain delivered a stinging rebuke of President Barack Obama's handling of the terrorist attack on an American consulate in Libya, saying the commander in chief is either "engaged in a massive cover-up" or is "grossly incompetent."

The 2008 GOP presidential nominee focused his remarks on the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Libya rather than Hurricane Sandy at an event in battleground Ohio that had been billed as a "storm relief and volunteer appreciation" event.

"This president is either engaged in a massive cover-up deceiving the American people or he is so grossly incompetent that he is not qualified to be the commander in chief of our armed forces. It's either one of them," McCain told Romney volunteers gathered here at a Victory Center.

Though the mention of the attacks has faded from Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's stump speech, it remains a hot button for conservatives who feel the death of four Americans was a result of negligence on the part of the White House. Democrats have condemned the accusations as an attempt by the right to politicize the tragedy, a notion McCain dismissed when speaking to reporters.

"I think it's interesting to note that when there was a success, such as when, thank God, we were able to get bin Laden, the administration poured out every single detail, even details that put American lives in danger," McCain said. He later added: "It is my obligation to the men and women who are serving to get the full story out to these four brave Americans have families. They deserve to know why their sons were sacrificed in the needless fashion."

As McCain motivated volunteers at Romney's Ohio headquarters, the GOP nominee held a relief event to collect supplies for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Obama cancelled campaign events on Tuesday, and Romney scratched an earlier event in this state, a move McCain called "appropriate."

The 2008 presidential candidate said he believes the storm "froze everything in place while this terrible tragedy fixated the attention of the American people. Now i think they're ready to get back into this campaign."

Also joining McCain was Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who encouraged Ohioans to bring supplies to Victory Centers throughout the state. They are two of many surrogates who will be hitting the Buckeye State between now and Election Day. The focus now is turning out the base and getting as many early votes as possible before Nov. 6.

Asked to compare conservative enthusiasm now to at this point four years ago, McCain said, "I hate to admit it but it's much stronger than in 2008. That's just a fact."

With Election Day just one week away, state officials along the eastern seaboard are assessing the devastation done by Hurricane Sandy, which swept through the Northeast corridor and hit New Jersey and New York hardest.

For the second day, early voting was canceled in Maryland, while some in-person absentee voting locations in northern Virginia were closed, and early voting was suspended in six counties in West Virginia, a state hit by high winds and heavy snow.

Gary Hershorn / Reuters

Floodwaters surround a car parked on a street in Hoboken, New Jersey Oct. 30, 2012. Sandy, one of the biggest storms ever to hit the United States, roared ashore with fierce winds and heavy rain near Atlantic City, New Jersey after forcing evacuations, shutting down transportation and interrupting the presidential campaign.

But the looming challenge was for counties in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut where the storm surge flooded schools and other locations designated as voting sites next Tuesday. Election officials in coastal counties were struggling to assess whether power outages might force changes in some of next Tuesday’s polling locations.

The potential for disruptions to voting on Nov. 6 could depress voter turnout in storm-affected areas of New York and New Jersey, for example, but President Barack Obama is still likely to carry those two states with no difficulty.

In Nassau County, N.Y., where the south shore was inundated by the storm surge and where there are more than 900,000 registered voters, towns such as Oceanside and Long Beach are now under a foot or more of water.

Related: Campaign pause set to lift on Wednesday

Nassau County Board of Elections Commissioner William Biamonte said Tuesday that he and other officials were still trying to reach the emergency contact people at each of the polling locations in the flooded areas, but they’d been unsuccessful, as cell phone service was out in parts of the county.

Before the storm hit, officials mapped polling locations in what FEMA designates as Category 1 storm areas: 68 of Nassau County’s 400 polling locations are in that flood-prone zone.

“The real issue is power,” Biamonte said. “If we still have massive power outages a week from today, there are few options.”

One of them: when voters come to a polling location, they would be asked to fill out the ballot used in the county’s optical scan machines and instead of scanning them at the polling location (which is the normal procedure), those ballots could be taken to the county board’s office and scanned there. This option, he said, would delay the tallying of results by a day.

Biamonte said he expects voter turnout of about 670,000 in the county next Tuesday but is concerned that about 300,000 of those voters, who vote only in presidential elections, will be unfamiliar with the optical scan machines the county has adopted since 2008. That unfamiliarity might add another element of confusion on Election Day.

But “come hell or high water – which is what we just had – were going to be voting next week,” Biamonte said.

As in New York, and in New Jersey too, power outages, massive flooding, and impassable streets are making it difficult for officials along the coast to assess polling locations.

“We’re talking about relocating polling locations,” said Jason Varano, assistant supervisor of the Ocean County, N.J., Board of Elections. “We don’t know what we’re going to do. We have no plan yet.”

But he stressed, “We’re taking an assessment of everything. By tomorrow night, when roads are safe to drive down, we’ll have a better assessment.”

The county clerk’s office in Toms River, N.J., has extended its hours to accept vote-by-mail ballots. The office will stay open until 9 p.m. tomorrow through Saturday and open Sunday as well until 4 p.m., said Scott Colabella, the Ocean County clerk.

Colabella added, however, that the clerk’s office currently does not have power and had to move its phone lines.

In New Jersey, anyone can vote by mail without an excuse. Voters can request a ballot at a county clerk’s office until 3 p.m. Monday.

Ocean County – one of the hardest hit areas in the state with its 45 miles of coastline stretching from Point Pleasant to Seaside Heights and down to Long Beach Island – has 411 precincts and 250 polling locations.

Monmouth County, N.J., with its 27 miles of coastline directly to the North of Ocean, was also severely impacted. Its offices were closed Tuesday.

Varano, who said county officials are coordinating with and awaiting more guidance from the state, said it will probably be five or six days before they know exactly the extent of the damage and what the county will realistically be able to do about voting.

“Right now,” Varano said, “there are massive amounts of numbers of people without power” and that has meant he’s having a “hard time getting in touch with” some of those in charge at polling locations. His office is open, but doesn’t even have Internet yet, he said.

Ocean County cast about 275,000 votes in the 2008 presidential election and is one of the most Republican counties in the state.

In Connecticut, Secretary of State Denise Merrill will be holding a conference call at 10 a.m. Wednesday with at least 200 town clerks and voting registrars across the state in order to assess whether changes in polling locations might be needed next Tuesday.

Merrill spokesman Av Harris said state officials do not yet know if some polling locations will need to be moved due to power outages or storm damage.

Meanwhile, several counties in West Virginia were still under blizzard or winter storm warnings as of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“We’ve been calling counties that are under blizzard or winter storm warning – they’re measuring the snow not in inches but in feet – and even though some of these places have gotten slammed, they’ve still managed to open their early voting sites,” said Jake Glance, a spokesman for West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant.

As for contingency plans for next Tuesday, Glance said most of the state’s 55 counties use touch-screen voting machines that can rely on battery power if electricity is still out in some places.

He said Tennant’s office has been exploring the option of deploying generators in certain precincts to keep lights on and machines operating if electric power is still out next week.

In Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley issued an executive order Tuesday ordering early voting centers to be open between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday after the hurricane forced cancellation of early voting on Monday and Tuesday.

NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this story

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney talks to supporters calling for donations during a storm relief campaign event to help people who suffered from hurricane Sandy, in Kettering, Ohio, on Oct. 30, 2012.

KETTERING, OH — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney collected donated supplies for hurricane victims on the East Coast on Tuesday, while urging supporters to give money to the Red Cross at a hastily arranged "relief event" in Ohio.

"Thank you for your help and your generosity," Romney told supporters, as he stood on a table surrounded by donated goods, at the location of a planned campaign rally this morning. "If you have a little extra, if you have more canned goods, bring them along to our victory centers that are open.  But also if you can write a check to American Red Cross that's welcome as well.  We're looking for all the help we can get for all the families in need."

Romney had been scheduled to hold a full-fledged campaign rally in this same building until late yesterday, when the campaign said it was scrapping Romney's political calendar as Hurricane Sandy approached the East Coast. Monday night, the campaign announced this morning's event was back on, but the focus would be storm relief — with Romney making no formal remarks, and no political agenda attached.

Attendees were asked by the campaign to bring donations of non-perishable goods, which are to be trucked to a Red Cross office in Sewell, NJ — or to give to the red cross directly.

Romney's remarks were indeed without a political focus, with no direct mention of the election now just one week away, or of President Barack Obama or any specific campaign issue. After speaking and packing boxes, Romney and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman helped load the donated supplies into a truck for shipment, ignoring questions about whether he planned to tour storm damaged areas, and on his views of the future of FEMA.

Despite effort to the contrary, no political event can be entirely apolitical in late October of an election year, and some trappings of a rally remained here. Romney's long biographical video played once, well before Romney arrived at the venue, and outside the arena vendors sold buttons and hats to attendees as they left. 

Mandy Hess, an administrative assistant at a medical office in Kettering who attended the event with her teenage son, said she wasn't bothered by the hint of politics mixed in with the relief effort.

"It's letting you know who he is as a person and what his roots are, and that people and family are what's important to him so I think that ties into the relief effort," Hess said. 

The GOP nominee himself kept his focus on the storm victims, and tried to strike an uplifting tone, telling supporters that their effort, however small in the grand scheme of things, would matter.

"I know that one of the things I've learned in life is you make the difference you can," Romney said.  "And you can't always solve all the problems yourself, but you can make the difference in the life of one or two people as a result of one or two people making an effort." 

The campaign resumes in full force Wednesday, with Romney planning three rallies in Florida, while his vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan hits the trail in Wisconsin. 

President Barack Obama canceled his campaign trips to Ohio on Wednesday as the rest of the 2012 presidential campaign prepared to largely resume its usual stride in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images

President Barack Obama makes a statement in the White House briefing room following a briefing on Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney — who was holding an event on Tuesday in Ohio ostensibly intended to collect supplies and donations for storm relief — appears set to head to Florida on Wednesday before heading to hurricane-stricken Virginia on Thursday.

Earlier Tuesday, the White House announced that the president will no longer make his planned campaign trip to Ohio, and instead remain in Washington, D.C., to monitor fallout from Sandy.

With just a week remaining until Election Day and precious few hours remaining for Obama and Romney to sway swing voters in a series of battleground states, both candidates had to weigh politicking with sensitivity to the East Coast victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The president faced additional official responsibilities in assisting to restore power to millions of Americans without electricity, and helping states cope with damage to infrastructure and beyond.

Obama won plaudits from a top supporter of Romney's — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — for his handling of the storm's aftermath.

But, speaking on Fox News, the pugnacious New Jersey governor also angrily dismissed efforts to interpret his comments through a political lens.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

Launch slideshow

“I have a job to do," he said. "If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, than you don’t know me."

Each presidential contender turned to surrogates on Tuesday to carry their message.

Related: Romney set to return to hurricane-stricken Va. on Thursday

Former President Bill Clinton was set to stump for Obama in Minnesota and Colorado, while Ann Romney was scheduled to hold a rally in Iowa following several hurricane relief events earlier Tuesday in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Wednesday's campaign schedule resembled a more traditional agenda for candidates just six days before an election. Vice President Joe Biden was set to make stops in Florida, and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was scheduled to campaign in his native Wisconsin.

The Romney campaign's official mobile phone application advised events for the former Massachusetts governor in Florida.

At this point, Obama's next publicly advised campaign events were set for Thursday, when the president was scheduled to make a three-state campaign swing with stops in Las Vegas, Boulder, Colo., and Springfield, Ohio.

Also on Thursday, according to the Republican Party of Virginia, Romney will make the first trip of any candidate to that battleground since Sandy struck.

Romney hasn't visited the Old Dominion state since Oct. 17, and canceled a planned visit this past Sunday for fear of diverting resources from preparedness operations.

 The hurricane's aftermath continued, though, to inject broader uncertainty into the race for president and scores of downballot campaigns, as candidates' schedules were re-arranged on the fly.

Power outages and canceled campaign events also complicated pollsters' efforts to gauge public opinion in states affected by the hurricane.

Of additional concern to both campaigns might be impact of inclement weather and hurricane fallout on early voting, a process used by both Romney and Obama to bank votes ahead of Nov. 6 itself.

Biden suggested on the "Enrique Santos Radio Show" on Tuesday morning that the hurricane may depress early voting.

"It may, it's just hard to tell now," he said of the storm's impact. "We've gotten the early vote out pretty well so far."

Could the vast disruption caused by Sandy prompt a delay in the Nov. 6 presidential election?  Voting may be extensively disrupted in some of the swing states, including Virginia and Ohio.

The answer is, yes, it could undoubtedly be delayed.  But it almost certainly won't be.

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish the day for presidential elections, and since 1845, a federal law has set the date as "the Tuesday after the first Monday in November." Congress could change the date, just as it could change any federal statute. But it would have to act quickly.

And of course, it's the states, not the federal government, that run elections in America.  Many states in areas not affected by Sandy's wrath would be likely to oppose a delay and its attendant costs. They could choose to go ahead with their elections for all but president and have a separate election for president later.  But such a move would undoubtedly suppress the turnout. 

Past disasters, including weather emergencies, have forced postponement of state and local elections.  New York state suspended its primary election in 2001 -- on September 11th, the day of the suicide hijack attacks. But few states have a regular procedure for doing it.  Florida, with its long experience in dealing with hurricanes, is one of the few with specific procedures in place, allowing the governor to suspend or delay elections.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

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John Fortier, a nationally respected expert on presidential elections, points out additional problems, writing on a blog sponsored by the Moritz School of Law at Ohio State University. 

"If voting were disrupted and postponed in one state," Fortier says, "then we will likely know the results in all the other states before voting can resume in the affected state. If the affected state or states are determinative of the electoral college outcome, the pressure and focus on that one state would be enormous."

Among other questions, he says, are what to do with votes already cast.

Finally, consider the fact that never before the U.S. history has a presidential election been postponed or canceled, not even during the Civil War.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

Reuters, Getty Images

In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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FERNANDINA BEACH, FL -- Speaking under clear blue skies here as Hurricane Sandy pounds the Northeast, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan asked Floridians to keep those in the path of the storm in their thoughts and prayers.

“Look, Floridians, you are no stranger to big storms. You know better than anyone on the need for communities to come together and for neighbors to help one another,” Ryan said. “You know, as we were driving over here, Adam [Putnam, Florida commissioner of Agriculture] was telling me about the hundreds of Floridians, about the hundreds of utilities crews that left just today from Florida to go to the Northeast. Thank God for men and women like that. Thank you for sending your people. That’s what we do for each other in this country.”

Recommended: Sandy gives unpredictable twist to 2012 election

The Wisconsin congressman, who along with his running mate Mitt Romney cancelled all of their remaining events this evening and all day Tuesday, encouraged the nearly 2,300-person crowd to send financial assistance to the numerous states that have declared states of emergency.

“When you get home today, take a look at the Red Cross website. Think about donating to the Red Cross. We know how to help each other in this country. If you have friends and family in the path of the storm, make sure you call them. Make sure they listen to the warnings, make sure they check on their elderly neighbors,” Ryan said.

He noted that the campaign is in touch with “regional leaders” and are collecting supplies at their victory offices throughout the Sunshine State.

Before continuing on with his normal stump speech and encouraging people to help the GOP ticket beat President Barack Obama in 8 days, Ryan said: “Since we all love this country, lets put our neighbors in the north in our prayers. Lets do what we need to do to help them get through what is coming their due – what is coming in their way – and lets not forget the fact that this is the greatest country on the face of the earth.”