Gainesville, florida, clergy, congressmen, hip hop and gospel artists as well as civil rights activists have come together over the past few hours to get voters to the polls. Just a short time ago i talked to a number of folks who have gathered here, nine days before election day. I asked them why they think this thing is going to be so close. I think the election here in florida is going to be one of these bushgore deals. I look for it to be youre thinking recount . I dont know about recount, but we hope its about more than 537. Yes, yes. Thank you. Well get back to politics in a moment. Right now, though, we turn to the latest on Hurricane Sandy and for that, weve got it all covered here. Nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer with the forecast and White House CorrespondentMike Viquiera standing by with the latest on the president who just got a briefing at fema headquarters. And nbcs thanh truong is on the beach in rehoboth, did he dext lets start with dylan dreyer with the latest advisory from the National Hurricane center. What can you tell us . We do still have to deal with a category 1 hurricane at this time. So winds are strong and theres a lot of rain. And this is still a huge storm. But look at how far away it is. It is still about 300 miles east of the carolinas. More than 500 miles to the southeast of new york city. So this storm is still impacting the east coast. And its so far away. So imagine whats going to happen as it moves closer to shore. We have coastal flood warnings from new england down into the Eastern Shores of virginia. Thats because we are looking at a storm surge up to around four to seven feet. If not higher. Thats the type of storm were dealing with as it moves onshore. Its pushing all that water onshore. And your normal high tide sirk cycle in the midatlantic region, thats going to happen at the peak of the storm. So the high tide will be about four to seven feet higher than normal. We also have high Wind Warnings posted across the northeast. Stretching back into eastern ohio, wind with the storm, Tropical Stormforce winds extend more than 500 miles out from the center of this storm. Look at how massive it is. It is affecting the entire eastern seaboard pretty much all at the same time. Right now the strongest winds are down near salisbury, maryland and down into virginia beach, northeastern North Carolina, gusting more than 40 Miles Per Hour. Heavy rain has been moving in and out of maryland. You can see the line of dark green and yellows. Thats where the heaviest rain is falling. Some of it moving onshore. Still affecting northeastern North Carolina. Where weve had several inches of rain already. You see back through pittsburgh. You see the cold front, thats whats moving westward. Weve been talking about how unusual the storm is as it backs west, it will draw in the storm. Thats why were going to see this easttowest movement of a category 1 hurricane. Which is almost unheard of. And something we havent seen obviously much of around here so were looking at the winds to increase throughout the day. The Tropical Stormforce winds become even higher, up to 60 Miles Per Hour or higher as we go into monday. And monday night, Tuesday Morning is our timeframe of winds gusting up near 80 Miles Per Hour. Winds and rain combined with the leaves on the trees will be our biggest issue. Because the ground is soft. With all that rain. Were going to see the potential for the trees to topple over. Power outages will obviously be an issue as well. And we will see the Power Outages lingering through the weekend and perhaps even into at least next week as the cleanup crews try to get to work. Craig . Dylan, thank you so much. Of course well be checking in with you periodically over the next couple of hours, thank you so much for the latest there on Hurricane Sandy. The president in washington today. As the northeast braces for Hurricane Sandy. He spent part of the afternoon at fema headquarters. Monitoring the preparations for the arrival of sandy. This is a serious and big storm. And my first message is to all people across the eastern seaboard, midatlantic, going north, that you need to take this very seriously. Nbcs Mike Viquiera, live at the white house, we just heard from the president and fema, what else did he have to say . Well it was interesting, the president decided to did to fema headquarters, a mile south of here from the white house, he said he wanted to give encouragement to the fema workers and get details. And he did, we listened in here, the white house, not only did he make the statement where the prosecute he is was present. But he had a 21minute briefing. A lot of questions for officials there. He had a statebystate briefing. Among the things he heard, theyre expecting a six to 11foot storm surge in certain areas above ground level. This wind field is going to be felt as far west as the ohio valley. The president particularly concerned about power, getting power back to residents along the east coast. He was told that because of lingering high winds, especially along the coastline, workers wont even be able to get to the downed power lines and there inevitably will be downed power lines until wednesday. Further inland they wont be able to get to them by thursday. Weve heard it could be days at the brightest Case Scenario before those, the power is restored in some of these hardesthit areas. The president has altered his Campaign Schedule. He was to be in florida and then moving on to youngstown, ohio and Northern Virginia tomorrow. He still goes to florida, although hes leaving a day early to beat the weather. Hes leaving out of the white house later this afternoon and then Northern Virginia end of the Campaign Stop has been postponed. Hes also postponed Colorado Stop as well. Craig . Mike viquiera from the white house with the latest on the president s response. Mike, thanks so much. We do appreciate that. Meanwhile, thousands of evacuations have been ordered up and down the east coast. As the storm moves closer to shore. But some have waited and taken advantage of the rising waves. Take a look at this. A surfer in cape may, new jersey today, he left the water on his own accord. At least one other surfer, were told at least one other surfer has had to be rescued. Lets go down a little farther down the coast. Where nbcs thanh truong is live for us at rehoboth beach. Whats the latest there . Well craig, you can remember when we were coming to you live yesterday, the whole boardwalk, the beach area was packed. Take a look now, its basically empty and look at the ocean behind us, the water getting stirred up pretty well. This is just a taste of what were going to expect coming through the next 2436 hours. Were expecting about wind gusts of up to 60 Miles Per Hour. Storm surge between four to eight feet and up to eight inches of rain as well this area is under a mandatory evacuation order. That means about 50,000 people have been told to leave. They have roughly, they have until about 8 00. And at that time, theyre going to start closing down the roads and bridges into areas lish rehoboth beach. This is a very popular destination area. Yesterday as i mentioned and as you saw, this was packed walltowall people. It looks like a ghost town. Businesses are shut down. Boarded up. Residents and tourists have been streaming out of here all day, heeding the warning. Theres going to be widespread Power Outages, they have roughly 2,000 extra utility workers throughout the region. On standby, anticipating whats going to be probably a very wide situation in terms of Power Outages. So as this is going, this is just kind of a preview of what were going to expect. Its supposed to get worse coming in the later hours this evening and were sure going to be in for a rough night tonight. Craig . Thanh truong with a dramatically different picture from the one we saw yesterday. We saw folks cheering and waving in the background. Now its a ghost town. The looming threat from Hurricane Sandy, upending the Campaign Schedule in the critical last days. The Romney Campaign has canceled events scheduled for today in virginia. Instead romney will be campaigning in ohio and wisconsin tomorrow. This afternoon, romney and his running mate power ryan held a rally in toledo, ohio, governor romney touting his business experience, repeatedly promising to bring back jobs. I didnt just read about Small Business, i didnt just study it in school. I lived Small Business. I know what its like to start a business. I want to use the experience to help people get more businesses started, get more jobs, get higher takehome pay. As we mentioned, the president in washington, d. C. Earlier today. But he will try to leave for florida this afternoon. Were told the Obama Campaign canceled scheduled events this week. In Northern Virginia. Of course there was supposed to be the rally with bill clinton and Prince William county. Canceling an event in colorado springs. Colorado due to the hurricane as well. Meanwhile in battleground ohio, the race now officially a dead heat. This is the latest poll from the cincinnati inquirer and ohio news organization. It shows the president and governor romney tied. At 4949. You can bet the campaigns are closely watching sandys path along the east coast. Just nine days before the election. Sandy may be having some lasting effects in several states. Especially in the crucial battleground state of virginia joining me now, christian kabowski. The Republican National committees National Press secretary. Kristen, good afternoon to you. The Romney Campaign canceling events in the commonwealth today. How worried are you at this point about the storm, and its aftermath affecting the campaigns last days before the election. Well obviously our primary concern right now has to be the hurricane and all those in its potential path. Right now thats what the campaign and the rnc, thats what were focused on. I know that the campaign are going to be involved in any of the, any kind of efforts that we can be to help those who are affected over the next couple of days. So definitely number one focus has to be those affected by the hurricane. Lets stay on virginia here, a Washington Post new poll out shows the president has a fourpoint edge. Governor romney had been building momentum. The momentum appears to have dissipat dissipated. What happened in virginia to governor romneys campaign. I dont agree with what, i think what weve seen over the last several weeks since the first debate is that in virginia as well as states across the country, the governor romney definitely has the momentum. Weve seen polls where governor romney is up. Weve seen polls that are tied. Weve seen polls that have us a couple of points down. I think it is essentially an extremely close race thats going to come down to the wire but we feel very good. If you take a look at whats happening on the ground in virginia with the early vote. One thing that people need to start paying attention to is where the early votes are coming in in Northern Virginia, right outside of washington, d. C. Weve seen the democrat participation in those counts has gone down since 2008 and weve actually ours go up. So thats going to be something that everybody should watch out for over the next couple of days. Lets talk about quickly, early voting here in florida. Yesterday we were in miami, today were in gainesville, inperson early voting started in the Sunshine State and ive got to tell you based on the folks ive talked to. Based on what ive seen. The gop appears to be in real trouble when it comes to early inperson voting. Why is that . Were ahead of the Obama Campaign in absentee and early voting in florida. Were going to continue to be. Are you talking about early inperson voting . Were talking about all of it. We have absentee ballot voting and early inperson voting. Essentially what you have going on down there is in several other states, is that you have the democrats going in and taking the voters that are going to typically come out on election day and theyre having them vote early. And were actually doing the opposite. Were actually asking voters to maybe wont come out to the polls on election day. Were focusing our efforts on getting them to the polls early. Or to vote absentee when they normally wouldnt come out on election day. 6. We dont have a great deal of time, but ive got to tell you, im not sure which numbers youre quoting which shows the gop has some sort of early voting advantage. But well leave it there, our Republican National committee National Press secretary. Thank you for being with us on this sunday afternoon. Thank you. Will Hurricane Sandy put election day in peril . Were going to dig deeper into that. And also could the senate, could the senate swap hands . The republicans say they have a plan. Well show you what the plan is and the reverend Jesse Jackson is standing about five or six feet away from me in gainesville. Hes been rallying troops on the ground as early voting is under way here in florida. Can a 30dayold pluggable febreze make even this old container smell fresh . Take a deep breath. Describe the room that youre in. I think just like a big, open space. Like im hanging the sheets on the line. And it smells really fresh, man. Lets take your blindfold off. Oh [ both laugh ] superweird oh, is it febreze . Yeah. Ohh, how about that . Febreze has anticlogging technology that keeps it smelling fresh, even after 30 days. Febreze. Breathe happy. Tomato, obviously. Haha. Theres more than that though, theres a kick to it. Wahlalalalallala smooth, but crisp. Its kind of like drinking a food thats a drink, or a drink thats a food, woooooh [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. Couldve had a v8. Nine days until election day. Thousands have come to the polls all over florida. As the Sunshine State starts early voting. Were coming to you live from gainesville, florida. On this sunday afternoon. As dozens of churches have brought in voters by the busload and carload, by the vanload to cast their ballots, its called souls to the polls. Civil rights leader, reverend Jesse Jackson has been an active participant in souls to the polls for some time. Thank you for joining us. The attempt to purge voters and the suppression schemes have had the impact of waking people up. The impacts of puleople. You think that some of the voter restrictions, some of the voter i. D. Laws, it sounds as if you think its had an adverse effect. I was at North Carolina central in durham on friday, maybe 2,000 students voted, because they can vote on campus the same day in North Carolina. And today theyre voting in orlando and now here in gainesville. People took it kind of light in 2010. But theyre all the way live in 2012. What type of effect if any do you think that the hurricane is going to have on the election . It seemed like something were trying to outrun the hurricane. Trying to vote in front of it. Even if the worst comes, it will not last until november 6th, for example. I think when the record is out there, are we better off than four years ago . Four years ago, we lost four million jobs, but have gained five with a swing of nine million votes. Pell grants who didnt have them then. The auto workers are working three shifts in ohio, who did not have those jobs three years ago. Soldiers in iraq, 100,000 home now. The president has a record and the more he runs on that record, the more he is gaining strength. Hes putting forth in spite of all the attacks, a maturity of judgment and discipline. I think his momentum is growing. While i have you here, im sure our viewers would be interested in hearing latest on your son, how is he doing . It comes and goes, hes back in treatment at mayo. If youre bleeding, you get a bandaid, if you break a leg, you get a splint. But if you not set up an artificial clock. He wants to serve so badly. You have to put his health and stability above all else. No matter what it takes. And i think that he feels the support of so many people. But well have to take our time to let him get his full strength back. Reverend Jesse Jackson, safe travels and appreciate your time. Thank you. Lets go back to virginia, we were just talking about it a few minutes ago. President obama hanging on to a slim fourpoint lead in the commonwealth over governor romney. According to the latest Washington Post poll. Joining me on the state of the race. Jo anne reed, managing editor of the grio who was supposed to be with us in florida. Im jealous. The latest poll, alex. Washington post poll, president obama leads about 51 to governor romneys 47 . Back in september, the president had a stronger lead, 52 to 44 in virginia. Why do you think the governor has been able to close the gap in the commonwealth . I think just like you see nationally and a lot of other