Obama back on the campaign trail after Sandy

>>> speaking of new jersey wednesday, president obama assured the victims of the storm that he would take care of them.

>> what i can promise you is that the federal government will be working as closely as possible with the state and local officials and we will not quit until this is done.

>> as we see, a tall order. joining me, former director of the white house domestic policy council , melody barne. a former member of the obama team. this is an enormous challenge and the president's been given high marks for what he's done so far by none other than chris christie .

>> right.

>> but how does -- how do they keep this going? we've all seen how political figures in the past, from the mayors to governors to presidents, have tripped on these kinds of disaster reresponses.

>> i think the president said it the other day, as president, his first, second, and third responsibility is to the american people , to the people whose lives have been devastated by this storm and to making sure that they get what they need, that the federal government cuts through all red tape . there is no bureaucracy so they can support the states and the governors and the localities getting the job done. he took an oath and that's his first and second responsibility. and then everything else has to follow behind that, andrea.

>> chris cillizza was saying earlier, from "the washington post ," that they have now put ohio from lean democrat to toss-up where it's been on other battleground maps as well for quite some time. the question now is, the path to 270 for both candidates, how nervous are people in chicago? they say they're not, they have this very sophisticated computer modeling they can get voters out. but there's places they can't get voters out and there's the human element. are they relying too much on science and not enough on shoe leather?

>> absolutely not. one of the hallmarks of the 2008 campaign was the ground game, people on the ground, been in neighborhoods, communities, talking to people and able to go back and flock on doors and get people out to vote that ground game still exists. at the same time what we've also always said is that this is a close election . this isn't a surprise to anyone. i think we're all waiting for next tuesday and at the same time, the campaign is confident about what's going to happen next. part of the confidence, i believe, comes from the early voting . and what we've seen. ohio , you mentioned ohio , reality is that since the early voting began, there have been nine polls out there, and all of those polls show that the president's leading in early voting . that's the momentum we're taking into the election day . it's going to be close. but at the same time we believe that we have the infrastructure in place to do it, and beyond that, we believe the american people have a reason to support the president. they have a reason to go vote for him. it's a kind of thing that i was hear, i was telling you, i've just been in my hometown of richmond, r. virginia, as people engage me i hear they want this president to be re-elected and that's a battleground state as well.

>> of course. the romney campaign says that they have the advantage in many of these states. they say that they have an advantage in early voting that has not been properly counted, you know, both sides claiming the same voters. and that to a certain extent people who counted voting early are robbing the bank of voter whose are going to vote on election day . it's not necessarily something that you can take for granted.

>> well, we're not taking anyone for granted, but i believe that what this shows is momentum and at the same time you have issues like you know the jeep ad and the romney campaign dabbling in misinformation that tells voters i have yet to go to the polls. this is the campaign he's running. this is the kind of person that you can vote for versus the president and many have said to me, the president with regard to health care and education, the economy coming back, consumer confidence going up, these are reasons that we believe he should be re-elected. i think we're not taking anyone for granted. but at the same time we see momentum moving in right direction in what will be a very close election .

>> thank you so much, melody barnes. good to see you