On the trail they will see him in the role of commander in chief including later this hour when he delivers a statement on the hurricane from the white house. And perhaps voters will be wondering how a president romney might handle the very same situation. One indication comes from a primary debate in june of last year, when governor romney made the case for shutting down fema and passing the responsibility on to the states. Fema is about to run out of money and some people say do it on a casebycase basis and some who say maybe were learning a lesson here the states should take on more of this role. Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, thats the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector thats even better. Were borrowing 1. 6 trillion more this year than were taking in. Including Disaster Relief . We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral in my view. For us to continue to rack up larger and larger debt and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that well all be dead and gone before its paid off makes no sense at all. Just to recap, governor romney, at least the governor romney of 2011, believed the government could not afford programs like fema and i said it was immoral and made no sense to keep spending money on Disaster Relief and even better to send these to the private sector. When reached for a statement, romneys campaign of 2012 told us, governor romney believes that states should be in charge of Emergency Management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions. As the First Responders states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities and to direct resources and assist tons where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and fema. A Romney Campaign official also says, quote, of course he doesnt want to abolish fema. One week before election day and 800mile wide hurricane is bearing down on 60 Million People across a dozens states. The damage may be upwards of 18 billion and could produce lifethreatening conditions. Its taken the lives of 65 people as it powered through the caribbean. The october surprise is here in a time of crisis voters must determine whether they want governor romney at the helm and if he there is what kind of relief will be on offer. The paradox of the mittens, obfuscation and adjusted policy continues. Lawrence . Excuse me. Im doing a note to self about use that romney video tonight. Please do, my friend. If the power is still on in this building and were still doing please do. If that old video archive is still up an running. Thats good. What you call on point. Yes. For this particular news cycle. It is. John king interrupts him and says even for Disaster Relief and he continues on saying its immoral and makes no sense. Thats the wonderful version of ideological consistency that occasionally erupts in republican primaries. When theyre going way over into territory, which is what we was trying to do. Well see how he handles the be that video fwigz to be on a loop on this network and others for the next couple days. And you know, steve, i want to ask you in terms of looking we dont know the effects of the storm and its toll will be and we are concerned about the damage that it may cause and the lives that may be lost and any victims that are in the way of the storm, but in terms of the campaign, the fact that we are one week out from the election, the question is, how does each candidate account for this . And it looks like obama is going to stay in washington, take on the role of commander in chief as he probably has to. The bigger question is, what does mitt romney do . How does he what does had he do as far as the optics of looking like hes sitting on his hands and waiting for this . There isnt really a choice for either one. If youre the president of the United States you have no choice but to switch into commander in chief mode and show leadership and youre not going to be getting the politics at a time like this. Romney, you cant switch into that mode, if you switch off of candidate mode, then youre just sort of nothing. You dont have an official platform. The media will not necessarily be coming to you to listen to you at all, youre ceding stajts to obama. Look at the position that romney is in, if he was in a better position he could potentially afford do that. But hes running two or three points hoinds in the key swing states without any momentum in any of those states. He needs to do something proactively to generate momentum in wisconsin and iowa and states like that. If he says im going to suspend my campaign during this, he lets obama take the stage for the commander in chief the next few days and romney disappears. Risk looking too political but he doesnt have a choice. Its worth noting we got an update that team romney released a statement on scheduling for today and tomorrow, a director writes, quote, out of sensitivity for the millions of americans in the path of the hurricane we are canceling events tonight. They say they are canceling all events scheduled for gernor romney and congressman ryan on tuesday. Joining us to talk about this, live from the white house, is nbcs chuck todd. Chuck, we were a re talking abg a candidate right now a week before election day and also not wanting to seem overtly political in a time of national crisis. Your assessment of the situation . Well, im not surprised that they went ahead and canceled it. What was he going to say . It was like the president this morning, be i was surprised when he went ahead and left last night from here to wake up in orlando and i think they realized they woke up in the morning going what is he going to say at this rally, at a campaign rally. Are you going to go one of your rifts against the candidate. The same calculus was done by the romney folks. Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of ub lick opinion. Better to in this case plead political, take the fifth, dont say anything, take two days off and crede the turf because the potential to step in it, to Say Something to look and act insensitive, like even this morning they put out something the Romney Campaign about how, you know, he was focused, wanted to get updates on the disaster called republican governors Bob Mcdonnell and Chris Christie, why not the democratic governors too. You knew what they meant, calling people he knew and was trying to get some updates but at the same time it looked a little too partisan, wait a minute, only focused on the states with republican governors and dont want any of that. This is a case they decided there is no good that comes out of campaigning even if youre out there on your own, that you can only create a problem for you and only going to get attention if you do something that is out of context or out of sorts. Chuck, what do you make of that, of that footage from the primary campaign when romney is talking about basically handing ending federal funding for fema and handing over Disaster Relief to the states. Do you think that comes back to bite him later on in the week after the hurricane has sort of passed through most of the u. S. . I dont know if theres enough time, if this you try to turn this into a campaign tactic, whether this is the case. I mean i think that fema is something that is quite popular in the state of florida so its something that would not go over well, i think with floridians but again, when do you want to prosecute that political argument . And you do so too soon, you run the risk of looking like youre trying to youre overly cynical and political. Theres some you have to be careful in how you prosecute the politics of that. That said if that is something that catches fire and he feels hes on the defensive about, i go back, fema is popular in the state of florida. My family went through some problems in 04 and 05 during the storms when florida was getting bombarded and both jeb bush and fee ma are popular in the state of florida because of it. And you talk about Disaster Assistance on hold, bring up Hurricane Katrina and memories of the Bush Administration which does not play well for republicans. Thank you as always to chuck todd, live from the white house. Okay. We will be asking you many more questions in the coming days and have the president s remarks live later this hour. Ari, talk about president obama and sort of his role in all of this, whichs is to say he has to act as the commander in chief, a tricky ballet for romney and the white house as well. Appear to be above it all, yuts understanding he has a couple days left and has to make his convincing argument before november 6th. One job in america thats 24 7 and thats the president. Oh, no. You have not seen the way th this the way she goes at this job. I love you for that but i could never oversee any disaster maybe thats the next segment as we talk about alex wagner versus president obama and get into that. Keep it coming. But people know that. People know that in their gut. And depending on the kind of president you are, Ronald Reagan talked about how government is the problem. President obama is a different kind of president and yes, government is part of the solution here, that dovetails with what you were discussing with chuck todd. I dont think you to prosecute that argument very politically or directly. You go do the job and you coordinate and you lead and the American People will see that. Its a little reminiscent, ironically, of the october surprise that we had last cycle except president it was not president obama, it was then senator obama didnt have an incumbent in the race and you had the American People looking at a financial crisis, not unlike a storm and the first moments you dont know what, why, youre just scared. And i think what at lot of voters took away from that, was then senator obama seemed like a calm, good, steady leader. I want to go back to the romney thing. It was in the same debate if youll remember that ron paul jumped in and started talking about how we need to lack at some of our Disaster Relief and put it into the hands of the churches. I would advise finding that as well. Were talking about the party that romney would have to come in and wrangle in that is saying the churches should be helping when the power is down and the trees are down. Really . It turns the argument back to mitt romney doesnt care about everybody. Right here it is, be the question of Disaster Relief. Lets privatize it, send it to the private sector. It does reinforce that narrative. What ive been wondering about is there enough time left for the Obama Campaign to do a commercial with that video that you just showed . The problem is, theres this whole kind of dignity aftermath that you have to maintain so you dont get aused by the immediate accused of the media by exploiting this event. This is what government is about and by the way, its one of those other great things that the debates missed as they always do. There will always be something that matters in the last week that was never mentioned in the debates. And i just think that theres this video gold of romney saying if im president now, my hope is that id be supplying you with nothing. That is my hope. I dont know what congress would allow me to do but thats my hope. The idea that we will construct some sort of media notion of what is right, that says, no, you must not remind people of that, you the obama team must not do a commercial that goes into virginia and reminds people of that. Or florida. And the fact hes catching in a moral argument the most distasteful aspect to it. Not just about trimming the budget and getting your arms around the deficit, its about the world thats exactly the kind of things voters should know. The real way to get them to know it is through these ads. Thats what reaches them. Thats why they raise that money. While lawrence is had hitting on something important because this happens with other thats what i do. No. Its barometric im here to bring the importance. The gold nugget of the news cycle. But it is so true, that we get this lecture every time something terrible happens. We got it in on gun control when we looked at gun tragedies which is an issue, by the way, where both nominees i think are fairly poor on the policy. But even still, even though it was a bipartisan neglect of gun control this narrative we cant talk about this. I think its the opposite. With dignity you can still discuss the policy implications. Can i just quickly say for the rest of the campaign, you dont have to listen to me when i make a prediction, i said i think romney has to keep campaigning and not ten seconds later they cancel the next two days. Please, just so you know, no one needed that warning. Please dont think that were all just take were going to take a little break so steve can recollect himself and deal with the humiliation. After the break Hurricane Sandy is expected to take a serious toll on the jersey shore. Governor Chris Christie has a warning for those who live in the highest risk areas. I think all of our mothers taught us if we could avoid it, dont be stupid. So dont be stupid, get out. And go to higher, safer ground. I turn out to be right and you turn out to be dead thats not a great equation. Not a great equation at all. President obama is set to make a statement on sandy in a few minutes. We will bring you his remarks live and a live report on sandy coming up next on now. Bad ah. Fire bad just have to fire roast these tomatoes. This is going to give you a head start on your dinner. That seems easier [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. Five delicious cooking sauces you combine with fresh ingredients to make amazing homecooked meals. I truly believe that if we can get the deficit and debt issue solved, which i believe we can get done, you know, in the lame duck or in the immediate aftermath of the lame duck, then that clears a way a lot of the ideological underbrush and then, you know, now we can start looking at a whole bunch of other issues that, as i said, historically have not been that ideological. That was president obama on morning joe hinting that partisan gridlock could clear once democrats and republicans reach a deal on the fiscal cliff. Early on in his term president obama had hopes of working with congress, but republicans intent on defeating him made that close to impossible. Would a president romney have an easier time working across the aisle . The Des Moines Register seems to say yes. In its endorsement of romney the first republican to receive the backing in 40 years the Editorial Board writes in recent weeks, romney has been pointing to his alleged record of bipartisan saying yesterday that he would work with democrats as long as theyre the good ones. Were going to have to do something that has been done in the past in this country, reach across the aisle, were going to have to find good democrats. Good democrats love america too. We have to reach across the aisle, work together, collaborate, meet and fight for the American People and we will. It is unclear who mitt romney considers to be, quote, good democrats. But its worth noting that when governor romney was the governor of massachusetts, he and the democratic controlled legislature were hardly on good terms. Though he and the lawmakers reached a deal on Health Care Reform the New York Times reported this month steve, i always go to you when we talk about massachusetts politics. I like that. I really could go to lawrence. I defer to steve. For another great prediction, right . Making predictions these days. You wont see me after that. Historical analysis, my friend. Yep. The Des Moines Register endorsement im not sure how much any of these newspapers are going to affect the race but for obama Whose Campaign began in iowa its not a nice thing that Des Moines Register has endorsed mitt romney given the fact that they havent done so in decades. Why is there this narrative that mitt romney is somehow a guy whos going to reach across the aisle given his track record as a governor when he did not do that at all . Right. I mean in the sense that anything that was accomplished in massachusetts when mitt romney was governor was by definition bipartisan, because you had overwhelming democratic control of both houses, he can make that claim. He had bad relationships with the legislatures in that state. Part was it wasnt a partisan thing, it was his style. He set himself apart from the legislato legislators, had a separate elevator, those kind of things. I always thought the first two years of romneys governorship when he tried, for instance, to get massachusetts into a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative the first two years were very moderate, even a little liberal. It was the abrupt moment at the end of 2004 when he decided i cant be get reelected running for governor of this state on this platform and simultaneously position myself to run for the presidency. Thats when he moved really far to the right. And i think the what im seeing in the Des Moines Register endorsement and others like that, this belief na youre going to get the romney of 2003 and 2004, and if youre looking at how any president is going bebehave, look at what their party label is. Hes a republican president , going to be in charge of basically implementing a republican agenda and we know what republican agenda is. Vice President Joe Biden issued a warning on that front. Listen to what he had to say about romney and who he is beholden to. Ask him a question, when have you ever seen governor romney take on the establishment of his party . What do you think the prospects are that governor romney would attem